Renaissance Humanism developed a fantasy of friendship in which men can beabsolutely equal to one another but Shakespeare and other dramatists quicklysaw throug... » 

Renaissance Humanism developed a fantasy of friendship in which men can beabsolutely equal to one another but Shakespeare and other dramatists quicklysaw through this rhetoric and developed their own ideas about friendship morefirmly based on a respect for human difference. They created a series ofbrilliant and varied fictions for human connection as often antagonistic assympathetic using these as a means for individuals to assert themselves in theface of social domination. Whilst the fantasy of equal and permanent friendshipshaped their thinking dramatists used friendship most effectively as a way ofshaping individuality and its limitations. Dealing with a wide range ofShakespeares plays and poems and with many works of his contemporaries thisstudy gives readers a deeper insight into a crucial aspect of Shakespearesculture and his use of it in art. «