This is a collection of essays on an important but overlooked aspect of early modern English life: the artistic and intellectual patronage of the Inns of Court and their influence on religion, politics, education, rhetoric, and culture from the late fifteenth through the early eighteenth centuries.

Title page Contents List of illustrations Notes on contributors Acknowledgments Jayne Elisabeth Archer, Elizabeth Goldring, and Sarah Knight Abbreviations Introduction Preface: Jayne Elisabeth Archer, Elizabeth Goldring, and Sarah Knight 1. The third university 1450-1550: Law school or finishing school?: J. H. Baker I. History: Education, Religion, Politics, and the Law Introduction: education, religion, politics, and law at the early modern Inns of Court: Jayne Elisabeth Archer 2. The Inner Temple revels (1561-62) and the Elizabethan rhetoric of signs: Legal iconography at the early modern Inns of Court: Paul Raffield 3. Gospel, law, and ars prodicandi at the Inns of Court, c.1570-c.1640: Hugh Adlington 4. The Inns of Court and the common law mind: The case of James Whitelocke: Damian X. Powell 5. 'The sinful history of mine own youth': John Donne preaches at Lincoln's Inn Emma Rhatigan 6. Readers' dinners and the culture of the early modern Inns of Court: Wilfrid Prest II. Art, Architecture, and Gardens Introduction: the art, architecture, and gardens of the early modern Inns of Court: Elizabeth Goldring 7. The halls of the Elizabethan and early Stuart Inns of Court: Mark Girouard 8. Professional pride and personal agendas: Portraits of judges, lawyers, and members of the Inns of Court, 1560-1630: Tarnya Cooper 9. The evolution of the early gardens of the Inns of Court: Paula Henderson 10. The rebuilding of the Inns of Court, 1660-1700: Geoffrey Tyack III. Literature and Drama Introduction: literature and drama at the early modern Inns of Court: Sarah Knight 11. Lyric poetry at the early Elizabethan Inns of Court: Forming a professional community: Jessica Winston 12. The evidential plot: Shakespeare and Gascoigne at Gray's Inn: Lorna Hutson 13. Locating The Comedy of Errors: Revels jurisdiction at the Inns of Court: Bradin Cormack 14. Law sports and the night of errors: Shakespeare at the Inns of Court: Richard McCoy 15. New light on drama, music, and dancing at the Inns of Court to 1642: Alan H. Nelson Select bibliography of secondary criticism Index