Abstract

The premiere of George Ruggle’s Latin play Ignoramus in 1615 proved to be the first step in a long history of revivals, translations, and adaptations that reached its zenith in the early decades of the Restoration. Much of its success is owed to its timely participation in the politico-legal debates held between Royalists and parliamentarians throughout the first half of the century. The renewed interest in Ignoramus in the Restoration confirmed the permanence of its political significance. This essay focuses on the influence that Ruggle’s play exerted on the anonymus comedy The Woman Turned Bully, which premiered and was printed in 1675, and analyzes how the figure of the Ignoramus lawyer was criticized by foregrounding the threats that the alliance between common law and Puritan ideology could still pose in Restoration society.

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