 But the significantly misleading nature of the argument goes beyond a moment of overstatement. The case against mimêsis misleads in that it exploits the ambiguity between impersonation as something a writer does and impersonation as the performer’s task. In 1963 Eric Havelock stressed the importance of this ambiguity to Book 3; but Havelock understated the degree to which Plato exploited the ambiguity. The most convincing part of Book 3 has to assume that mimêsis is performance, both because such effects as thunder are mimicked in performance, not on the page; and because the bad effects of impersonation on character make more sense when describing young actors’ playing a vicious role than grown playwrights in the act of writing that role.