PROLOGUE, IN Troy, there lies the scene. From isles of Greece With wanton Paris sleeps; And that's the quarrel. And the deep-drawing barks do there disgorge Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits, To tell you, fair beholders, that our play Leaps o'er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils, [1] I conceive this Prologue to have been written, and the dialogue, in more than one place, interpolated by some Kyd or Marlowe of the time; who may have been paid for altering and amending one of Shakespeare's plays; a very extraordinary instance of our author's negligence, and the managers' taste! RITSON. [2] Orgulous, that is, proud, disdainful. Orgueilleux, Fr. [3] To fulfil, in this place, means to fill till there be no room for more. STEEVENS. STEEVENS. To be "fulfilled with grace and benediction" is still the language of our liturgy BLACKSTONE. [4] To sperre, or spar, from the old Teutonic word speren, signifies to shut up, defend by bars, &c. THEOBALD. [5] I come here to speak the prologue, and come in armour; not defying the audience, in confidence of either the author's or actor's abilities, but merely in a character suited to the subject, in a dress of war, before a warlike play. JOHNSON. [6] The vanguard. called, in our author's time, vaunt-guard." PERCY. |