Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Play
Five acts are just the measure of a play.
Roscommon.—Horace’s Art of Poetry.
The play’s the thing,
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.
Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act II. Scene 2. (His reflections on the players and himself.)
Plays are the mirrors of life.
Bulwer Lytton.—Devereux, Book [?]. Chap. X.
With his romances, and his d——’d plays, and his Odyssey, Popes, and a parcel of fellows not worth a groat.
Murphy.—The Apprentice, Act I.