7 .10 Autolycus , le bonimenteur de foires

7. 11 L'illusion régénératrice

‘Who can paynte her face and curle her heere, and chaunge it into an unnaturall colour, but therin doth worke reprofe to her maker, who made her ? As though she could make her selfe more comely than God hath appoynted the measure of her beautie. What do these women, but go about to refourme that whiche God hath made ? not knowing that all thinges naturall is the worke of God, and thynges disguysed, unnaturall be the workes of the devyll. ⁶¹⁶ ’ ‘What child is there, that, coming to a play, and seeing Thebes written in great letters upon an old door, doth believe that it is Thebes ? […] the poets' persons and doings are but pictures what should be, and not stories what have been […] an imaginative ground-plot of a profitable invention. ⁶¹⁹ ’

Shakespeare en citant le nom de l’inégalable maître italien Giulio Romano, "who, had he himself eternity and could put breath into his work, would beguile nature of her custom, so perfectly he is her ape." (5. 2. 88-90) demande implicitement au spectateur de jouer le jeu , de ne pas figer l’univers ludique et merveilleux de son théâtre et de laisser l’art inonder le monde ⁶²⁰ . Cette démarche est une invitation à prendre conscience du pouvoir de la dramaturgie, du pouvoir de l'art à transformer le monde, en l'avilissant ou en l’améliorant, mais surtout en lui en forgeant de nouvelles réalités.