Honest counselor and bitter fool, fearless speaker of truth to power and tub-dwelling public masturbator, the Cynic philosopher Diogenes enlivens some of Shakespeare’s most compelling plays, including King Lear, As You Like It and Twelfth Night. In this timely and fascinating study, David Hershinow traces the Cynic challenge to power and conformity backwards to Shakespeare’s sources in ancient philosophy and forwards to Hegel and Foucault, discovering in the Cynic stance the enduring allure of a criticism capable of changing the world through the sheer audacity of matching blistering words to outrageous deeds.