Law Practice
Feb. 17, 2010
How Litigious Are Shakespeare's Sonnets?
Robert Bastian of Bastian & Dini peels back the layers of legal imagery in William Shakespeare's sonnets.
Robert L. Bastian Jr.
Partner, Bastian & Dini
Penthouse Suite 9025 Wilshire Blvd
Beverly Hills , CA 90211
Phone: (310) 789-1955
Fax: (310) 822-1989
Email: robbastian@aol.com
Whittier Law School
William Shakespeare assumed the reader of his sonnets possessed a relatively sophisticated knowledge of law. In sonnet 87, for example, lamenting that his beloved is too dear for his "possessing," he provides the legal analysis setting his lover free:
"The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing; My bonds in thee are all determinate. For how do I hold thee but by thy granting? And for that riches where is my deserving? The cause of this fair gift in me ...For only $95 a month (the price of 2 article purchases)
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