"Of what quality was your love," asks the knight. Ford "Like a fair house built on another man's ground: So that I Have lost my edifice by mistaking the place where I erected it." This statement of Ford's does not appeal to us as being worthy the place assigned it by Lord Campbell. There are to-day, and we suppose there existed in Shakespeare's time, many laymen who know that property, built upon another's premises, could not be enjoyed by the party constructing it. Lines such as arc above recited where "common" and "several," "hereditary" and " purchased," " estates in reversion" and " in presenti " are used in apposition indicate more convincingly the extent of Shakespeare's knowledge of the law. Holinshed has not only supplied the poet with much of the historical data utilized in the dramas, but with many legal phrases as well. Suffolk's interview with Cardinal Woolsey, where the deposed prelate is in formed "Because all those things which you have done of late By your power legatine with this Kingdom Fall into the compass of a prae munire; — That therefore such a writ be sued against you; To forfeit all your goods, lands, tenements. Chattels and whatsoever, and to be Out of the king's protection," is taken, even to the phraseology, from Holinshed. From the same source comes Bolingbroke's statement of his grievances in Rich ard II : — "I am denied to sue my livery here And yet my letters patent give me leave. I am a subject, And I challenge law; attorneys are denied me; And therefore personally I lay my claim In my inheritance of free descent." It may be said without exception that when Shakespeare causes historical charac ters to speak in the language of the law, both the idea and the terms have been taken bodily from one of the several au
thorities which Shakespeare usually con sulted. The speech of the Countess, referring to one of her gentlewomen in All's Well, has a decided legal ring : — "Faith — her father bequeathed her to me and she herself without other advantage may lawfully make title to as much love as she finds. There is more owing her than is paid, and more shall be paid her than she'll demand." In the celebrated funeral oration of An thony occurs the following, which flows so evenly and well as to persuade that the terms were not entirely new to the author : "Caesar has left you all his walks, His private arbors and new planted orchards On this side Tiber; he has left them you, And to your heirs forever, common pleasures To walk abroad and recreate yourself." The subject of administration is thus treated in Richard II when the king sar castically criticises the sombre trend of the conversation : — "Let's talk of graves, Let's choose executors and talk of wills : And yet not so, for what can we bequeath Save our deposed bodies to the ground." Several quotations that smack of real property law are appended without com ment or criticism. They do not display any profound familiarity with the subject, but they would, doubtless, be cited by coun sel maintaining that Shakespeare was a lawyer. Benvolio says to Mercutio : — "And I were so apt to quarrel as thou art any man should buy the fee simple of my life for an hour and a quarter." Mercutio. — " The fee simple! Oh, simple." The captain, telling Hamlet of the value of the land attempted to be secured by the expedition : — "To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it, Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole A ranker rate should it be sold in fee." Richard thus describes the conduct of Hereford : —
