The Actor

Beware the old tragedian heart

That loves to weep within the hall

And all enraptured by his art

Confounds the real with but the role.

For Hecuba he sheds his tears

Until the listening rows are blurred,

And after cries without the doors

"Have I not also much endured?"

Neither have I been forth to look

At Trojan towers that are come down

Lest that my mimic heart mistake

. Another's sorrow for its own.

For rather would I be a stone

Than emulating sympathy

Think for an hour to have won

Grace in the reckoning to be.