In this place
And time, 'tis to no purpose; for I know,
What you resolve already to bestow
Will not be altered, whatsoe'er I say
In the behalf of us, and of the play;
Only to quit our doubts, if you think fit,
You may or cry it up or silence it.
It was in order, no doubt, the more to conciliate the audience that
epilogues assumed, oftentimes, a playfulness of tone that would
scarcely have been tolerated in the case of prologues. The delivery of
an epilogue by a woman (i.e. by a boy playing the part of a woman) was
clearly unusual at the time of the first performance of "As You Like
It." "It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue," says
Rosalind; "but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord the
prologue. If it be true that good wine needs no bush, 'tis true that a
good play needs no epilogue. Yet to good wine they do use good bushes;
and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues." There
can be little doubt that all Shakespeare's plays were originally
followed by epilogues, although but very few of these have been
preserved.
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