In "The Prince" Machiavelli offers a cool, practical and unsentimental look at what man is. He offers hands-on instruction for achieving stability and a well-run principality. Whether or not Shakespeare read "The Prince," which was not translated until years after the playwright's death, the book's principles were generally in circulation in Renaissance England. Many of Shakespeare's plays with evident Machiavellian precepts can be used in a humanities course. In examining "Macbeth,""Measure for Measure,""All's Well that Ends Well,""Hamlet,""The Tempest,""Richard III,""Coriolanus,""Henry V," and "Julius Caesar," three particular areas of Machiavellian thought are evident: (1) virtu; (2) separation of politics and ethics; and (3) how a new ruler ought to act. These three areas are often mixed closely together and it is not always possible to separate them cleanly in discussions of character. Clearly, Shakespeare was at heart a conservative who believed wholeheartedly in the stability of the social order and who had a deep mistrust of crowds and their abilities to govern themselves or anyone else. According to Shakespeare's thinking, a stable, secure society was one that recognized the social hierarchy and abided by it; murder, mayhem, and anarchy were the inevitable results of tampering with it. That harsh actions were sometimes required to maintain this social hierarchy was something that Shakespeare and Machiavelli alike recognized. (A resource bibliography for a seminar on Shakespeare's plays is attached.) (TB)