Shakespeare and Voltaire: both legally vulnerable and successful

Abstract

ABSTRACT Copyright protection was very limited in the past. Both Shakespeare – and, later, Voltaire – suffered from piracy of their ideas. If their respective legal systems were insufficient to provide protection when they published their works, in the later historical development they both became very important in the legal field. Shakespeare became a model to be quoted in judgments for rhetorical reasons, whereas Voltaire was cited because of his strenuous battles to free courts from superstition and religion. The connection between these famous authors is also due to the sincere appreciation for Shakespeare expressed by Voltaire, who highlighted the revolutionary style of the English tragedy when compared with the classicist attitude still prevailing at the time on the European Continent.