"There is a human face to Shakespeare's theatrical world. It has been captured and preserved in the amber of litigious activity. Contracts for playhouses represent human aspiration: an avaricious hope for profit or an altruistic desire to provide for a family. Lawsuits have preserved the declarations of rights and the righteous indignations as well as the fictions and half-truths under which the Renaissance theater flourished. Leases and agreements preserve the intentions, honest or dishonest, of the men who wrote, performed, and bankrolled the drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The period 1590-1623, the limits of the original Shakespearean enterprise, resemble nothing so much as a third of a century of the sort of squabbling, shoving, and place-seeking familiar to every modern theatrical professional." "Playhouse Law in Shakespeare's World demonstrates how the law functioned for, against, and within the early modern drama. The Inns of Court, for example, played an important if not pivotal role in London's emerging theater industry. From the choice of playhouse location to furnishing attendees, aficionados, and even playwrights for the popular theater, the Inns of Court were crucial to the establishment and development of the traditions that produced Shakespeare and his contemporaries. This book traces that development from the early fifteenth century through the Caroline period."--Jacket.