Shakespeare, in some sense, helped create the modern man, didn't he, his influence is that pervasive. He held the mirror up to nature, but he also created that mirror: so the image he created is the very one we hold ourselves up to.
Jess Winfield, My Name Is Will: A Novel of Sex, Drugs, and Shakespeare
mirror, modern-man, nature, pervasive-influence-of-the-bard, shakespeare