Montaigne's essay, Of Cannibals, is an undisputed source of the novel which supports the former view. Montaigne believed that a society without the civilised 'additives' of law, custom and artificial restraints would be a happy one. There are also two opposing views of the nobility. The first belief is that nobility comes by birth, and hence one of noble birth is virtuous by extension. Shakespeare supports the second view which sees nobility as the perfection of nature in each thing.
Nobility is shown by the manners and merits of the individual.
Thus, among those of better birth, there are those who might beget an evil nature and noblemen can do wrong because they are free to choose. Though gentle birth predisposes man to virtue, it is not necessary to virtue. It cannot be uniformly maintained that where there is high birth, there is virtue. In the play, Shakespeare has portrayed neither Nature nor Art as perfect but as having a complex relationship where one is reflected in the other. While Nature calls forth the authoritative power of Art to correct it, Art can descend to, and even sink below, the level of Nature.