Ere I could make a prologue to my brains,
They had begun the play.
– William Shakespeare
Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2. Hamlet uses acting metaphors to explain to Horatio how he wasn’t warned about his upcoming execution, with orders for his beheading contained in a letter from Claudius to the King of England. Hamlet has been playing a part throughout much of the action, but the time is soon coming when all pretense will be stripped away.