Note 626 — BOOK V PLAYS AND PLAYWRIGHTS

Greg, Henslowe Papers, 155, prints it; cf. 1 Antonio and Mellida, ind. 1, ‘Enter ... with parts in their hands’; Wily Beguiled, prol. 1, ‘Where are these paltrie Plaiers? stil poaring in their papers and neuer perfect?’ By derivation, the words assigned to an actor became his ‘part’; cf. Dekker, News from Hell (1606, Works, ii. 144), ‘with pittifull action, like a Plaier, when hees out of his part’.