STAGE DIRECTIONS

Now let your stage lie bare, the lights contract;
we know the masquers are not far away:
there is a curtain for the final act.

If we have kept the dual text intact,
no change of scene imports, and no delay:
now let your stage lie bare, the lights contract.

The cast uneasy, timing inexact?
That comfort is not least by which we say
"There is a curtain for the final act".

The songs are fiction, but the plot is fact;
there is a past that we must not betray.
Now let your stage lie bare, the lights contract.

Let the two eponyms alone compact
exchange of parts: the end is sure as they
- there is a curtain for the final act.

Oh living theatre that I have lacked,
if not between your wings, where shall I play?
Now let your stage lie bare, the lights contract:
there is a curtain for the final act.