Be you content, fair maid;
It is the law, not I, condemns your brother.
Were he my kinsman, brother or my son,
It should be thus with him; he must die to-morrow.
_Measure for Measure_, Act ii. Scene 2.
And according to another maxim of the law of England, Justitia non novit
patrem nec matrem, solam veritatem spectat justitia (I. Bulstrode, 199).
Justice knows not father nor mother, justice looks at the truth alone.
_Hector._ Brother, she is not worth what she doth cost
The holding.
_Troilus._ What is aught, but as ’tis valued?
Coke in his Third Institute, 105, considering how the value of a thing
shall be construed, quotes the maxim, Tantum bona valent quantum vendi
possunt; things are worth as much as they will sell for.
_Richard._ God save the King! Will no man say amen?
Am I both _priest_ and _clerk_? Well then, amen.
_King Richard II._, Act iv. Scene 1.
Shakespeare may here refer to two legal maxims, for one says, Rex est
persona sacra et mixta cum sacerdote (5 Co. Eccl. L), and the other says,
Reges dicuntur clerici (Dav. 4).
_Lady Macbeth._ Alack, I am afraid they have awaked
And ’tis not done. The attempt and not the deed
Confounds us.
_Macbeth_, Act ii. Scene 2.
Non officit _conatus_ nisi sequatur _effectus_ (11 Co. 98). _Attempt_ is
the English of conatus, and _deed_ may represent effectus.
_Scici._ He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock
With rigorous hands; he hath resisted law,
And therefore law shall scorn him any further trial
Than the severity of the public power,
Which he so sets at nought.
_Coriolanus_, Act iii. Scene 1.
Merito beneficium legis amittit, qui legem ipsam subvertere intendit
(2 Inst. 53). According to Scicinius, Coriolanus had resisted law and
therefore lost the benefit of the law.
_Sal._ May this be possible? may this be true?
_Mel._ Have I not hideous death within my view,
Retaining but a quantity of life,
Which bleeds away, even as a form of wax
Resolveth from his figure ’gainst the fire?
What in the world should make me now deceive,
Since I must lose the use of all deceit?
Why should I, then, be false, since it is true
That I must die here, and live hence by truth?
_King John_, Act v. Scene 4.
Nemo præsumitur esse immemor suæ æternæ salutis, et maxime in articulo
mortis (6 Co. 76).
Melun was in articulo mortis, and according to this maxim no one is
presumed to be unmindful of his eternal welfare, and especially at the
point of death.
_Diana._ ’Tis not the many oaths that make the truth,
But the plain single vow, that is vow’d true.
What is not holy, that we swear not by,
But _take the Highest to witness_.
_All’s Well That Ends Well_, Act iv. Scene 2.
Jurare est Deum in testem vocare, et est actus divini cultus (3 Inst.
165). Shakespeare evidently refers to this maxim, for to take the Highest
to witness, est Deum in testem vocare.
_Antony._ Hear me, queen:
The strong _necessity of time_ commands
Our services awhile; but my full heart
Remains in use with you.
_Antony and Cleopatra_, Act i. Scene 3.
‘If the Bishop makes a certificate, and dies before it is received, it
is nothing worth, but his successor ought to certify it (F. N. B. 65,
8 E. 2, Excom. 26, 14 E. 3; ibid. 8). But note, reader, that in some
cases the Vicar-general may certify an excommengement, that is when the
Bishop is in remotis agendis, which is as much as to say, extra regnum,
in the king’s service; but the Court will be apprized of it by matter of
record, scil. by writ out of the Chancery directed to them, and not by
the surmise of the party, and then for necessity (which is always the
law of time, for necessitas est lex temporis) the certificate of the
Vicar-general shall be allowed, because no other can make it’ (Co. Rep.
viii. 69). In excuse for his going away Antony mentions the necessity of
time, and it was the necessity of time which required and rendered valid
the certificate of the Vicar-general.
* * * * *
In the books mentioned on the title-page of this small volume, in my
contributions to the Berlin Society for the Study of Modern Languages,
published in Archiv. f. n. Sprachen, and in _Notes and Queries_, I have
called attention to Shakespeare’s knowledge of old law books, of the
Real Property Law, the Common Law and the Lex Scripta, but I think the
knowledge and correct application of legal maxims displayed in his works
afford the strongest evidence I have yet produced that the great poet
must have been, for some time, a student-at-law.