Common Law, Cymbeline, and the Jacobean Aeneid

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the Jacobean dawn of the Stuart dynasty's reign over England, and the tendency of James I to trample law underfoot whenever the legal institution (and in particular the courts of common law) opposed the extension of prerogative rule. Of particular interest in this context is the marked contrast between the absolutist leanings of James I and the artificial reason of common law. I refer throughout to Shakespeare's late romance Cymbeline, reading the play not only as a dramatic symbol of national identity, but also as a representation of the journey of intellectual and political self-discovery upon which the subject of law was tentatively embarked in Jacobean England. I interpret Cymbeline as a Jacobean Aeneid: an epic poem, for a new century and an uncharted epoch. For the purposes of the present analysis, I conceive of law in symbolic terms, rather than in its narrow, historical context. If the historical material contained herein is not always brought directly to bear on the text of Cymbeline, it is because I interpret the realms of literature and law in this specific instance as running parallel to each other, rather than immediately impacting one upon the other.