Page:Marcus Aurelius (Haines 1916).djvu/383

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

BOOK XII

So might a praetor who commissions a comic actor, dismiss him from the stage. But I have not played my five acts, but only three. Very possibly, but in life three acts count as a full play.[1] For he, that is responsible for thy composition originally and thy dissolution now, decides when it is complete. But thou art responsible for neither. Depart then with a good grace, for he that dismisses thee is gracious.

  1. iii. 8; xi. 1; Epict. Man 17.
343