ABSTRACT
Since ‘actor’ contains a built-in trap, we should begin with it. It must not be confused with dissimulation. Dissimulation is merely the necessary consequence of executing certain parts. The shifts and devices of Richard are the public manifestation, even a vulgarisation, if you like, of his role-playing. To ‘act’ is to perform before an audience, but not to deceive it, and not - though here we stir the depths of the actor’s mind - oneself. The earliest refutation of the idea that Richard is an ‘actor’ because he is a deceiver is supplied by Henry VI. Alone of his society, he penetrates Richard’s identity with this : ‘What scene of death hath Roscius now to act?* (3 Henry VI, v, 6, 10). There is no question of Richard deceiving anyone at this point (save himself). But the gap between self and role opens out even here, in the logical inadequacy of his meditation:
O, may such purple tears be always shed From those that wish the downfall of our house! . . . . I have no brother, I am like no brother. . .
