Shakespeare's Binding Language is an innovative, substantial but highly readable study by a respected scholar-critic who has already published a series of well-received books and editions with OUP and Penguin, and who is also known for his pieces in the Guardian, TLS, and London Review of Books. It explores the significance in Shakespeare's plays of oaths, vows, contracts, pledges, and the other verbal and performative acts by which characters commit themselves to the truth of things past, present, and to come. In early modern England, such binding language was everywhere. Oaths of office, marriage vows, legal bonds, and casual, everyday profanity gave shape and texture to life. John Kerrigan gives a freshly researched account of this context, but he focuses on the drama. Across the sweep of Shakespeare's career, from the early histories to the late romances, this book opens new perspectives on key dramatic moments and illuminates language and action.