“Now what else is the whole life of mortals but a sort of comedy, in which the various actors, each disguised by various costumes and masks, walk on and play each one his part, until the manager waves them off the stage? Moreover, this manager frequently bids the same actor go back in a different costume, so that he who has but lately played the king in scarlet now acts the flunkey in patched clothes. Thus all things are presented by shadow, yet this play is put on in no other way”
Erasmus, The Praise of Folly
1511
Capriccios, 1997 –1998
