ABSTRACT
During the Renaissance, the actor was a paradoxical figure in the social hierarchy. Someone of low birth might make their name playing monarchs and emperors. As a member of a generally disreputable profession, the player might still hold sway over the crowds with his oratorical command. There was power on the stage of the Globe Theatre, power which could lend to the actor the authority of the magus or the compelling attraction of the lodestone. In metaphysical terms, the actor was an equaliser, a channel for presence and authority of many kinds but also someone in whom the condition of human mortality was epitomised, as in Shakespeare’s line:
All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players.2
