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Shakespeare plays CLAUDIO on stage

A view of the stage, with a sign telling us that we are in a prison cell; lighted candles indicate that it is night, and there is a stool at the back. Shakespeare is centre-stage, performing as Claudio dressed in Elizabethan style. He is in chains, looking distressed, his sister standing calmly next to him in her nun's habit, hands together in prayer

CLAUDIO Death is a fearful thing.

ISABELLA And shamed life, a hateful.

CLAUDIO Ay, but to die, and go we know not where,
To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot.
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod. O 'tis too horrible.
The weariest, and most loathed worldly life
That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment
Can lay on nature, is a paradise
To what we fear of death.

ISABELLA Alas, alas.

Measure for Measure, Act 3 Scene 1