When we play the fool, how wide
The theatre expands! beside,
How long the audience sits before us!
How many prompters! what a chorus!

Landor frames human folly as a kind of public performance. When we “play the fool,” the “theatre” seems to expand: our mistakes feel amplified, as if staged on a larger platform than ordinary life. The “audience” that “sits before us” suggests the social gaze—real or imagined—under which embarrassment and self-reproach intensify. “Prompters” and “chorus” extend the theatrical metaphor to include the voices that cue, comment on, or reinforce our foolishness: advisers, critics, gossips, or even our own inner narration. The passage captures how shame can make us feel surrounded by spectators and commentary, turning private error into a spectacle.