Quotation
Last reviewed:
“Remember that you are an actor in a play, of the kind the playwright wants it to be.”
Epictetus · Stoicism · Ancient · c. 108 CE
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that your role, short or long, rich or poor, is assigned, and playing it well matters more than casting yourself in another play. A competing reading hears a defence of social rank, as if the enslaved teacher were telling people to accept every part a society hands them. The chapter says the playwright chooses the length, and your job is to play the given part. It is Stoic role-ethics, not a theatre review.
Did Epictetus really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Close to W. A. Oldfather's Loeb translation of Enchiridion 17, which says a drama of such a kind as the author pleases. Arrian wrote the Handbook from Epictetus's teaching.
Where it comes from
Enchiridion 17
Approximate date: c. 108 CE.
How to use it
A carer's week, a short contract, or a life that will not be the career you sketched at twenty-two is the sort of casting he means. Playing it well is about the duties of that part, not about smiling through unfairness as if the script were sacred in every line. You can still argue with a bad institution, and the image blocks the extra misery of demanding a different genre of life before you will act decently in this one.
A mindset reading
The habit is to separate the part you did not choose from the way you play it. Ask what excellence is available inside the actual role, and what the metaphor is being used to shut down. A playwright in this chapter is the order of things, not your manager.
Understand the philosophy
Epictetus is answering the wish to have been given a different life. The playwright stands for god or fate, and the actor's skill is the only success fully up to you. A long play or a short one, he says, is not yours to decide. The key term is the role, which later Stoics treat as a set of fitting actions, and the image consoles ambition, and it can also be quoted to bless a hierarchy he spent his own life criticising from below.
- self
- meaning
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that your role, short or long, rich or poor, is assigned, and playing it well matters more than casting yourself in another play. A competing reading hears a defence of social rank, as if the enslaved teacher were telling people to accept every part a society hands them. The chapter says the playwright chooses the length, and your job is to play the given part. It is Stoic role-ethics, not a theatre review.
Did Epictetus really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Close to W. A. Oldfather's Loeb translation of Enchiridion 17, which says a drama of such a kind as the author pleases. Arrian wrote the Handbook from Epictetus's teaching.
Which work is it in?
Enchiridion 17 Approximate date: c. 108 CE.