Literary notes about Privity (AI summary)
Throughout literature, the term privity is employed to denote both a close, often confidential connection between parties and a formal relationship that may be legally binding. In legal writings, for instance, it is used to describe a relationship of contract or estate—underscoring that rights or obligations pass with the property as in the expression “the privity of contract followed the estate” [1]—while also indicating the absence of proper consent or approval, as when a treaty is signed “without the privity of the Court of France” [2] or a literary work is published “without Shakespeare's privity” [3]. Beyond legal contexts, privity surfaces in more poetic or dramatic language, suggesting an intimate or secret association, as in the evocative phrase “immured in shameful privity” [4] or the courteous yet formal request “I must speak with you in privity” [5]. This dual usage illustrates how the word bridges the gap between formal, contractual relations and the subtleties of personal, often concealed, connections.
- The privity of contract followed the estate, so that the assignee of the reversion could sue the person then holding the term. /5/
— from The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes - It has been suggested, that our Commissioners signed this treaty without the privity of the Court of France.
— from The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. 09 - Jaggard 's editions of the "Passionate Pilgrim," published without Shakspeare's privity or consent, ii. 43.
— from Shakspeare and His Times [Vol. 1 of 2] Including the Biography of the Poet; criticisms on his genius and writings; a new chronology of his plays; a disquisition on the on the object of his sonnets; and a history of the manners, customs, and amusements, superstitions, poetry, and elegant literature of his age by Nathan Drake - so oft hast sworn to me, To leave me in this lonely grove, Immured in shameful privity?
— from The Blue Poetry Book7th. Ed. - WITH that came the Damosel of the Lake unto the king, and said, Sir, I must speak with you in privity.
— from Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Sir Thomas Malory
