Dramatic

All the world’s a stage.

A truer word was never spoken. Though, I’ve always found myself wishing there was always someone to witness it as well. Half of the performance is the audience itself.

I was born to act. To perform, to inspire. To live on the stage. Why then, was I born a girl?

My birthday is April 5th, in the year of our Lord 1584. My father held me before even my mother; he always denies that when he looked upon me he was disappointed. Boys are far more useful. But I know my father loves me anyway. I know he does by the looks he gives both me and my sister. Even though we aren’t what he wanted, we are good enough.

Even before I could speak in full sentences, my parents knew I was an actress. I was an enormous drama queen (I still am) and always strove to be the center of attention. My parents never get tired of telling the tale of when a colleague of father’s came to visit, and I could not sit still. My father’s colleague and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Wobbler, were enjoying my mother’s shepherd’s pie, when I abruptly stuck my hand into the middle of it and smeared it all over my face, the table, and the Wobbler’s. Of course, we never saw the Wobblers again, but my parents never seemed to mind, and preferred a good story rather than scrupulous acquaintances.

I ask again. Why, when God was forming me in my mother’s womb, did he ordain me to be a girl? For, as everyone knows, girls do not act. It corrupts them, apparently. At least in England it does. In France, it doesn’t seem to be a problem. But in England, girls aren’t fit to stand upon a stage.

But, as I have already mentioned, the whole world’s a stage. It is not I who said it; to claim so would be heinous. The one who said it was an actor himself, a playwright. The greatest writer who ever lived. And if this phrase is true, then aren’t we all corrupt already? Might as well do it the right way, in the right circumstances.

But no. What I propose is preposterous, particularly coming from a lowly maiden like myself. Who would hear me? No one. Who would listen? Not even my own sister.

It isn’t proper, it isn’t decent. What I speak of is nonsense. At least to those who believe they have authority over me.

But I never give up easily. A good actor never does. I will act, for it is what I was born to do. And in doing so, I will change the world as we know it.