Purdue News

March 31, 2004

Shakespeare expert explains humor, 'fraud of men' during tax season

Hiding assets and income from the government has always made for a good plot since the days of William Shakespeare, says a Purdue University Renaissance scholar.

"New laws produce new frauds, which is the substance of great literature," says Charles Ross, a professor of English, lawyer and member of the Indiana Bar Association. "The temptation to avoid taxes, or to only pay what you consider your share fair, is the same temptation that led people to hide assets from creditors in many of Shakespeare's plays. There always will be a power struggle between the little person and the powerful."

Ross is author of "Elizabethan Literature and the Law of Fraudulent Conveyance: Sidney, Spenser and Shakespeare," which is a study of law in Elizabethan literature.

In the Elizabethan Age, many of the characters in the works of Shakespeare, Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser tried to give away property or hide it from their creditors. Today's average American also may try to evade the government. For example, some elderly people who face the costs of nursing home care try to preserve their assets by giving them to their children in order to become eligible for need-based funding, such as Medicaid.

"This is asset planning, but is it ethical?" Ross says. "Many people regard Medicaid as a right and see nothing wrong with planning in such a way to make themselves eligible for the program while protecting their family inheritance or lifetime earnings.

"Shakespeare captured the humor that drove people to engage in such behavior."

For instance, Shakespeare wrote, "Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance."

Shakespeare used love stories to talk about debt, Ross says. A woman like Juliet, in "Romeo and Juliet," owed a debt of obedience to her father. By marrying Romeo without her father's permission, Juliet raises the same ethical question as a fraudulent conveyor: is she right, or should Romeo be made to give her back? In fact, the first fraudulent conveyance laws in England were passed to protect the property interests of parents in their children.

CONTACT: Ross, (765) 494-3740, cross@purdue.edu