Robert Henke goes beyond previous studies of poverty and early modern theatre which focused primarily on English theatre, by employing a more transnational approach that considers English, German, Latin, Italian and French writings and performances. While the introduction places William Shakespeare's As You Like It and King Lear as the core of the discussion for the rest of the book, chapter 1, titled ‘Historical Attitudes, Policies, and Practices’, provides some background into the social mindset and the significant laws regarding poverty from the late 1400s to the mid-1500s. Henke establishes that there is a fascination with the issue, and playwrights such as Shakespeare are at the forefront of making it an issue of sympathy and charity rather than of condemnation. Henke includes illustrations throughout to discuss the visual representation of the beggar and to contextualize the relationship between rich and poor.

Chapter 2, ‘From Augsberg to Edgar’, examines King Lear's Poor Tom character and his possible derivation from Thomas Harman's A Caveat for Common Cursetors and John Awdeley's A Fraternity of Vagabonds. Edgar/Poor Tom is frequently discussed throughout because he is susceptible to believing his own impoverished disguise. The highest authority in the play – King Lear himself – sympathizes, and tries to help Edgar/Poor Tom, reflecting Shakespeare's own attitudes towards others helping the poor, showing that people who can be charitable, especially nobility, should not turn a blind eye to the less fortunate. Henke correlates the English texts and laws to German texts and laws (including Martin Luther's stances towards helping the poor), since Shakespeare, Awdeley and Harman were most likely aware of the contemporaneous German texts and laws.

Chapter 3, ‘Cheap Print and the Performance of Poverty’, explores how Italian piazza singers made their living by writing, publishing and performing their plays, which often reflected aspects of their own hardships. Henke writes, ‘the most famous of these singers, Giulio Cesare Croce, had an aristocratic patron but repeatedly suffered from want; the voices of the most obscure of these performers, some of whom were actually blind, reach across the centuries with lines like ‘Poverty makes me invisible’ (Poverta mi fa invisibile) (p. 7).

Chapter 4, ‘Ruzante: Necessity and Invention’, focuses on one of the most influential early modern poverty playwrights, Ruzante. Henke elaborates on ideas in Ruzante's main works, the effects of famine and the dichotomy of policy and practice, discourse and attitude. Chapter 5, ‘The Commedia dell'Arte: Poverty at the Margins’, discusses the roots and traditions of the Harlequin, and the founder of the art form, Domenico Biancolelli. While the concept of the harlequin has changed somewhat since its inception, Henke looks at the cultural fascination with the iconic figure and how it spread throughout Italy and beyond; in fact, the Harlequin features as the cover figure to this collection. The final chapter, simply titled ‘Shakespeare’, looks at the Bard's complex messages regarding poverty and charity as Shakespeare's influence carried over into society in laws. His characters of nobility, regardless of whether or not they were based on existing monarchs, had the power to make the common civilian as well as the ruling class change their attitudes towards the poor.

While Henke's research would appeal to anyone interested in theatre, especially Elizabethan-era theatre, its interest may be limited to anyone outside that field. However, the subject matter is made more approachable when it considers more contemporary popular plays – such as Rent, Les Misérables and Urinetown – that have captured diverse audiences, as those audiences can make correlations to the early modern works discussed by Henke. Henke concludes by discussing John F. Kennedy's declaration that humanity has the tools to end poverty. Similarly to the Elizabethan era, contemporary laws and performances give society a means to combat genuine poverty and suffering. Without performances by Shakespeare, Ruzante and Martinelli, poverty during the early modern era could have escalated and in turn created worse effects for the present day. Henke's book is thus an enlightening means to understand poverty and charity in Europe historically and today.