i see dead people

Whenever I study property these days I feel that I really shouldn't be reading my casebook. Instead, I should watch I, Claudius. I should read about the poor, pitiable Bennet girls in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, who faced homelessness because their estate was entailed away to an odious male cousin. Perhaps I should read Shakespeare's plays, maybe As You Like It or Henry V.

Property is dramatic. The words themselves are very dry. "O to A for life, then to B and her heirs if B reaches 21." Or, "O to A for life, then to B and her heirs, but if B does not survive A to C and his heirs." These words don't have flair. They are simple.

But they have power. I read the words, but I see vicious family arguments, suspicious deaths, aborted births, castles, feudal armies, and bloody battles. I think of Richard III's young murdered nephews, or Henry VIII's brutal search for a male heir.

The common law had a first cry rule: a baby was considered to be a live birth if a special witness stationed outside of the birthing room heard that baby's first cry. Again, just a technical requirement, but chilling at the same time. Who knew what happened behind the door? Just surviving birth into a family governed by one of these estates was a significant accomplishment.

I'm not just reading a law book. I'm reading a ghost story.