F. E. Schelling
“In the taverns, the brothels, and the jails Shakespeare found the foulmouthed, the ignorant, and the dishonest, and he represented them in all these particulars in a faithful, if at times, forbidding, reality to life. Moreover, his prejudice against evil is pronounced in the very repulsiveness of such scenes. He knows that there are impostors among beggars, that trial by combat is only a somewhat cruder method of getting at the truth than trial by jury, that there are corrupt and incompetent magistrates and fools abound- ing in all walks of life. Moreover, he depicts in his plays a feudal state of society, for such was English society in his day. But there is nothing in these honest dra- matic pictures of English life, from the king on his throne to Abhorson with his headsman's axe, to declare Shakespeare prejudiced against any class of his fellow- countrymen. Wherefore, our obvious generalization as to Shakespeare's attitude toward common folk, whether they be learned or unlearned, is this: he found among them the stupid, the ignorant, the pretentious, and the absurd; but he found likewise in each class the earnest, the honorable, and capable, and honored each after his kind as such. For their follies he ridiculed them; for their virtues, which he recognized, he loved them, deflecting neither to ridicule nor respect because of station in life.
”F. E. Schelling (The Common Folk of Sh.）