Customer Reviews

Kill All the Lawyers? Shakespeare's Legal Appeal

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Though perhaps defensive about his title and possibly a little hard on Portia, Kornstein, in true attorney style, effectively demonstrates Shakespeare's interest in and knowledge of legal problems that still are of concern today. He makes the reader aware of Shakespeare's multi-faceted view of human nature--a characteristic easily overlooked in a superficial encounter. Weakest is his theory concerning Midsummer Night's Dream, strongest is his concluding chapter with its brilliant appreciation of Shakespeare. This is an author worth knowing, a book worth reading. --Margaret Demores

This is an exceptional book that should be read by any serious student of Shakespeare. It provides an insightful look at Shakespeare's legal knowledge and insightful looks at how Shakespeare saw the larger issues of truth, justice, law and equity in the dramas. His analysis of the Merchant of Venice is especially pithy and noteworthy.

The major fault of the book is Kornstein has the wrong man as the author. His attempts to explain how the man from Stratford acquired this deep, profound and technial legal knowledge are woefully inadequate. Kill All The Lawyers? maintains that the man from Stratford acquired his knowledge by hanging around the Courts of Law and in "Legal London" is woefully inadequate. I suppose by the same token, the author acquired his legal knowledge by hanging out in coffee shops in Harvard Square.

Kornstein is aware that the legal knowledge of Shakespeare have been a long running dispute since the beginning of the Century. The case that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford was a lawyer, sat in Parliament, sat as a juror in the trial of Mary Queen of Scots and sat as a judge in other civil matters is ignored by the Author as he seeks to avoid the entire Oxford vs. Shakspere contretemps.

With this caveat aside, it is a book well worth reading.

Paul Streitz Member Shakespeare Oxford Society