Exhibition: Shakespeare at the OU

The manifestly ridiculous dramatic ambitions of the mechanicals, however, also mask the key respect with which Shakespeare regards them. As always, indeed, Shakespeare both exploits the poorly educated (and sometimes unintelligent) artisan class for comic effects and, importantly, is able also to use their generally straightforward natures as a foil to expose the shortcomings of sophisticated (but often absurd and arrogant or even vicious) aristocrats. The implicit comment of one class on another is found to work in both directions, as the eminent scholar Stephen Greenblatt insists in the next clip (Clip 17).

View Clip 17