In the "Accounts of the Revels in 1573-74," a charge is
made for "bays for the prologgs." Long after the cloak had been
discarded it was still usual for the prologue-speaker to appear
dressed in black. Robert Lloyd, in his "Familiar Epistle to George
Colman," 1761, writes:
With decent sables on his back
(Your 'prologuisers' all wear black)
The prologue comes; and, if it's mine
It's very good and very fine.
If not--I take a pinch of snuff,
And wonder where you got such stuff.
Upon this subject, Mr. Payne Collier notes a stage direction in the
Induction to Heywood's "Four 'Prentices of London," 1615: "Enter
three, in black cloaks, at the doors." Each of them advancing to speak
the prologue, the first exclaims--"What mean you, my masters, to
appear thus before your times? Do you not know that I am the prologue?
Do you not see this long black velvet cloak upon my back? Have you not
sounded thrice?" So also, in the Induction to Ben Jonson's "Cynthia's
Revels," two of the children of the chapel contend for the privilege
of speaking the prologue, one of them maintaining his claim by
pleading "possession of the cloak.
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