Actors...

"Remember that you are an actor in a drama, of such a kind as the author pleases to make it.

If short, of a short one; if long, of a long one.

If it is his pleasure you should act a poor man, a cripple, a governor, or a private person, see that you act it naturally.

For this is your business, to act well the character assigned you;

to choose it is another's."



Epictetus
The Manual [Enchiridion] Of Epictetus, 17
in The Discourses of Epictetus
Translated by P.E. Matheson
1916, p. 472