"
The custom of regarding the "prologuiser" as the author or his
representative, seems gradually to have been departed from, and
prologues came to be delivered by one of the chief actors in the play,
in the character he was about to undertake, or in some other assumed
for the occasion. A certain solemnity of tone, however, was usually
preserved in the prologue to tragedy--the goodwill and merciful
consideration of the audience being still entreated for the author and
his work, although considerable licence was permitted to the comedy
prologue. And the prologues acquired more and more of a dramatic
nature, being divided sometimes between two and three speakers, and
less resembling formal prologues than those Inductions of which the
early dramatists, and especially Ben Jonson, seem to have been so
unreasonably fond. The prologue to "The Poetaster" is spoken, in part,
by Envy "rising in the midst of the stage," and, in part, by an
official representative of the dramatist. So, the prologue to
Shakespeare's Second Part of "King Henry IV." is delivered by Rumour,
"painted full of tongues;" a like office being accomplished by Gower
and Chorus, in regard to the plays of "Pericles" and "King Henry V.
Pages:
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220