Quentin Skinner, the Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities at Queen Mary University of London and an intellectual historian, gave two lectures at Washington and Lee University on April 4 and April 6. W&L’s Mudd Center is sponsoring both talks. On April 6, Skinner spoke on “Why Shylock Loses his Case: Judicial Rhetoric in ‘The Merchant of Venice.'" This lecture on Shakespeare is part of his weeklong residency at W&L under the auspices of the Mudd Center. Skinner is the author of “Forensic Shakespeare” (2014), “Hobbes and Republican Liberty” (2008), and a three-volume collection of essays, “Visions of Politics” (2002). His two-volume study “The Foundations of Modern Political Thought” (1978) was listed by the New York Times Literary Supplement in 1996 as one of the 100 Most Influential Books published since World War II.