" And the prologue to Shirley's "Coronation,"
1640, was also delivered by one of the representatives of female
character. A passage is worth quoting, for its description of ordinary
prologue-speaking at this time:
Since 'tis become the title of our play,
A woman once in a Coronation may
With pardon speak the prologue, give as free
A welcome to the theatre, as he
That with a little beard, a long black cloak,
With a starched face and supple leg hath spoke
Before the plays this twelvemonth. Let me then
Present a welcome to these gentlemen.
If you be kind and noble you will not
Think the worse of me for my petticoat.
It would seem that impatience was sometimes expressed at the poetic
prologues and lengthy Inductions of the dramatists. The prologue to
Beaumont and Fletcher's "Woman Hater," 1607, begins: "Gentlemen,
Inductions are out of date, and a prologue in verse is as stale as a
black velvet cloak and a bay garland; therefore you have it in plain
prose, thus----." But the alteration did not please, apparently; at
any rate, upon a subsequent production of the play, the authors
furnished it with a prologue in verse of the old-established pattern.
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