pt. 1. Against schemes: "Tradition" ; "Self consumption" ; "Theory" ; "New historicism" -- pt. 2. Against received ideas: Impossible worldliness : "devout humanism" ; Appendix : Impossible transcendence ; Impossible radicalism I : Donne and freedom of conscience ; Impossible radicalism II : Shakespeare and disobedience ; Impossible radicalism and impossible value : Nahum Tate's King Lear.