Nigrinus

B Yes, I should have liked to say all that you mention, and also that I do not intend to quote him without a break and in his own words, in a long speech covering everything, for that would be quite beyond my powers; nor yet to quote him in the first person, for fear of making myself like the actors whom I mentioned in another way. Time and again when they have assumed the role of Agamemnon or Creon or even Heracles himself, costumed in cloth of gold, with fierce eyes and mouths wide agape, they speak in a voice that is small, thin, womanish, and far too poor for Hecuba or Polyxena. Therefore, to avoid being criticised like them for wearing a mask altogether too big for my head and for being a disgrace to my costume, I want to talk to you with my features exposed, so that the hero whose part I am taking may not be brought down with me if I stumble.