(As for me, neither woman, nor youth, nor the fond hope of mutual inclination, &c. delight me.)
The world’s a theatre, the earth a stage,
Which God and nature do with actors fill;
Kings have their entrance with due equipage,
And some their parts play well, and others ill.
Thomas Heywood: Apology for Actors, 1612.
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;