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Shakespeare plays CASSANDRA on stage

A view of the stage, with a sign telling us that we are in the besieged city of Troy. Shakespeare is centre-stage, performing as Cassandra dressed in classical style. He looks agitated as he steps forward, one hand raised in warning and hair in disarray. Other members of the cast play Trojans looking on in amused bewilderment

[Enter Cassandra, with her hair about her ears]

CASSANDRA Cry, Trojans, cry; lend me ten thousand eyes,
And I will fill them with prophetic tears.

HECTOR Peace, sister, peace.

CASSANDRA Virgins and boys, mid-age and wrinkled old,
Soft infancy, that nothing can but cry,
Add to my clamour. Let us pay at once
A part of that mass of moan to come.
Cry, Trojans, cry. Practice your eyes with tears,
Troy must not be, nor goodly Ilium stand;
Our firebrand brother Paris burns us all.
Cry, Trojans, cry. A Helen and a woe,
Cry, cry. Troy burns, or else let Helen go.

[Exit]

Troilus and Cressida, Act 2 Scene 2

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