PARTS.
Ours be your patience then, and yours our parts.
Epilogue, line 5.
This word bears quite a respectable age of antiquity in its theatrical sense, being so used in the year 1495 in a note to the Coventry Mysteries. “Payd for copying of the 11 Knights partes and demons.” The meaning refers to the character assigned or sustained by an actor in a dramatic performance; also the words assigned to or spoken by an actor in such a character. It also refers to a printed copy of these words:
PLAY.
The King’s a beggar, now the play is done.
Epilogue, line 1.
TRAGEDIANS.
What say you to his expertness in war?
Faith, sir, had led the drum before the