much as Man and Nature, or man and man. Shock at this 
departure from traditional vision and inclusive awareness was 
often directed toward the figure of Machiavelli, who had merely 
spelled out the new quantitative and neutral or scientific ideas 
of force as applied to the manipulation of kingdoms.

     Shakespeare’s entire work is taken up with the themes of 
the new delimitations of power, both kingly and private. No 
greater horror could be imagined in his time than the spectacle 
of Richard II, the sacral king, undergoing the indignities of 
imprisonment and denudation of his sacred prerogatives. It is in 
Troilus and Cressida , however, that the new cults of fissile, 
irresponsible power, public and private, are paraded as a cynical 
charade of atomistic competition:

     Take the instant way;