From the Preface to Shakespeare — Samuel Johnson

Shakespeare is, above all writers, at least above all modern writers, the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners and of life. His characters are not modified by the customs of particular places, unpractised by the rest of the world; they are the genuine progeny of common humanity, such as the world will always supply, and observation will always find. In the writings of other poets a character is too often an individual; in those of Shakespeare it is commonly a species. Nothing can please many, and please long, but just representations of general nature.