8
A Have done with your long prelude, “you strange fellow; begin at the beginning and tell me what he said. You irritate me more than a little with your beating about the bush.
8
B You are right! I must do so. But look here, _ my friend: you’ve seen bad actors in tragedy before now—yes, and in comedy too, I'll swear? I mean the sort that are hissed and ruin pieces and finally get driven off the stage, though their plays are often good and have won a prize.
8
A I know plenty of the sort. But what of it?
8
B I am afraid that, as you follow me, you may think that I present my lines ridiculously, hurrying through some of them regardless of metre, and sometimes even spoiling the very sense by my incapacity; and that you may gradually be led to condemn the play itself. As far as I am concerned, I don’t care at all; but if the play shares my failure and comes to grief on my account, it will naturally hurt me more than a little.
9
Please bear it in mind, then, all through the performance that the poet is not accountable to us for faults of this nature, and’ is sitting somewhere far away from the stage, completely unconcerned about what is going on in the theatre, while I am but giving you a chance to test my powers and see what sort of actor I am in point of memory; in other respects my réle is no more important than that of a messenger in tragedy. Therefore, in case I appear. to be saying something rather poor, have the excuse to hand that it was better, and that the poet no doubt-told it differently. As for myself, even if you hiss me off the stage, I shan’t be hurt at all!
