During the Renaissance, moral philosophy came to permeate the minds of many, including the spectators that poured into Shakespeare's Globe theatre. Examining these strains of thought that formed the basis for humanism, Raspa delves into King Lear, Hamlet, among others to unlock what influence this had on both Shakespeare and his interpreters.

One of Donne's most important and haunting works in prose, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions was composed in less than a month, during an illness that nearly cost the writer his life. Donne divided the book into twenty-three sections, each corresponding to a stage of his illness and each consisting of a meditation, an expostulation, and a prayer. Filled with powerful images of mortality and immortality that have moved readers throughout the centuries, it provides a coherent spiritual message relevant not only to Donne's life but to the lives of all people.