Table of Contents

Preface; Introduction; 1. Shakespeare and English humanism; 2. Gender; 3. Value pluralism; 4. Social justice; 5. Men, women and civilisation; 6. Love and death; 7. History; 8. Genius; 9. Anti-humanism; Notes; Select bibliography; Index.

Promotional Information

This book argues that the idea of a universal human nature was as important to Shakespeare as it was to every other Renaissance writer.

About the Author

Robin Headlam Wells is Professor of English Literature and Director of the Centre for Research in Renaissance Studies at Roehampton University. His books include Elizabethan Mythologies (Cambridge, 1994) and Shakespeare on Masculinity (Cambridge, 2000).