Renaissance humanists believed that if you want to build a just society you must begin with the facts of human nature. This book argues that the idea of a universal human nature was as important to Shakespeare as it was to every other Renaissance writer. In doing so it questions the central principle of post-modern Shakespeare criticism.

Shakespeares Humanism analyses a number of key Shakespeare plays, as well as works by Shakespeares contemporaries, to offer a methodology for interpreting this literature, both on the page and in the theatre. Renaissance humanists believed that if you want to build a just society you must begin with the facts of human nature. Headlam Wells argues that the idea of a universal human nature was as important to Shakespeare as it was to every other Renaissance writer, and therefore challenges the central, defining principle of postmodern Shakespeare criticism.