What makes Shakespeare centrally 'exceptional' to the current humanities curriculum, a measure and minimum unit for University administrations and the general public to recognise the activity of 'the humanities'? The essays in this issue of the Yearbook ask how we might push this question beyond categories of the exceptional, the superlative, the above, beyond, below, or even the normative, in order to scale Shakespeare historically, canonically, and ontologically in relation to 'the human'. In the now-established tradition of The Shakespearean International Yearbook, the 15th issue surveys important developments and topics of concern in contemporary Shakespeare studies.