“The world's a stage on which all parts are played.”

— Thomas Middleton

A Game of Chess (1624), Act v. Sc. 1. Compare: "All the world ’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players", Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act ii. Sc. 7.; "The world ’s a theatre, the earth a stage, Which God and Nature do with actors fill", Thomas Heywood, Apology for Actors (1612).

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Thomas Middleton 35

English playwright and poet 1580–1627

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Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)