You can try to define "commonplace" to win the argument, much as someone might define "blue" to win a "stop signs are blue" argument, in their own mind. If you

You can try to define "commonplace" to win the argument, much as someone might define "blue" to win a "stop signs are blue" argument, in their own mind. If you went looking for a human in medieval England who had never seen animals fighting each other to injury or death, surrounded by (indeed part of) a crowd yelling enthusiastically and enjoying the spectacle, you might find orphans raised in monasteries. Or infants who died before getting a chance, there was more of that, but I feel it's fair to discount that entirely. Easily 99.9% of these people would have experienced that. It was commonplace, your protestations notwithstanding.