Professor Schlueter approaches this early Shakespearean comedy as a parody of two types of Renaissance educational fiction: the love-quest story and the test-of-friendship story, which by their combination show the pitfalls of high-flown human ideals. A thoroughly researched, illustrated stage history reveals changing conceptions of the play, which has tempted many nineteenth- and twentieth-century directors and actors, who often fail, nevertheless, to come to terms with the play's subversive impetus.