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Quotation from The Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus
“And what is all this life but a kind of comedy, wherein men walk up and down in one another's disguises and act their respective parts, till the property-man brings them back to the attiring house”
The Praise of Folly, Folly's benefits: the stage-play argument, trans. John Wilson (1668)
Folly argues that the man who strips the masks off the actors spoils the play, defending social illusion as necessary to life.
Citation: "And what is all this life but a kind of comedy, wherein men walk up and down in one another's disguises and act their respective parts, till the property-man brings them back to the attiring house" — Desiderius Erasmus, The Praise of Folly, Folly's benefits: the stage-play argument, trans. John Wilson (1668). (id erasmus-praise-of-folly-q2)
