They shape their productions accordingly; and the literature of the stage, after having served to indicate the approaching literary revolution, speedily completes its accomplishment.

If you would judge beforehand of the literature of a people which is lapsing into democracy, study its dramatic productions.
The literature of the stage, moreover, even amongst aristocratic nations, constitutes the most democratic part of their literature.
No kind of literary gratification is so much within the reach of the multitude as that which is derived from theatrical representations.
Neither preparation nor study is required to enjoy them: they lay hold on you in the midst of your prejudices and your ignorance.

When the yet untutored love of the pleasures of the mind begins to affect a class of the community, it instantly draws them to the stage.

The theatres of aristocratic nations have always been filled with spectators not belonging to the aristocracy.

At the theatre alone the higher ranks mix with the middle and the lower classes; there alone do the former consent to listen to the opinion of the latter, or at least to allow them to give an opinion at all.