PROLOGUE (OF.. Fr. prologue, from Lat. prolugus, from Gk. rp6Xcryor. preface, introduction, from vp6, pro, before X6-yos, logos, speech, word, reason, ratio). In ancient Greek drama, that part of a play (whether an acted scene or an exclamatory speech) which came before the en trance of the chorus. Thus the prologue in the Wdipas of Sophocles is a scene in which appear (Edipus, the high priest of Zeus, and Creou, whereas the prologue to the Age In em non of ..-Es chylus is only the monologue of the watchman on the tower. From the time of Euripides the prologue became a speech explanatory of the situation to be developed, and it continued to be such in Latin comedy. With Plautus and Terence the prologue was divorced from the main body of the drama. in the early English drama the duties of setting forth the theme were shared by the induction, or prologue, and the chorus. When the induction was falling into decay the prologue or chorus supplied or as sisted the argument. Their double employment is exemplified in Hamlet in the play scene. When the prologue enters, Hamlet says: "We shall know by this fellow; the players cannot keep counsel; they'll tell all." Hamlet explains to Ophelia the relationship of Lucianus and the King. and Ophelia responds, "You are as good as a ehorns, my lord." In Henry the Fifth a prologue, called 'chorus,' precedes each act, to prepare the audience for the shifting scenes. For other plays Shakespeare wrote no prologue, but in the first scenes he both explained and devel oped the situation. After the 'Restoration (1660) a play was hardly complete without its prologue and epilogue. Even in Dryden's time the pro logue served as a subject for literary wrangling as often almost as it served any dramatic. pur pose. Modern plays, save for quaintness' sake, never have a prologue. On the other hand, the playwright is bound to set forth in the first scene the problem or theme to be handled in his play. Thus we observe something like a steady
degeneration of the prologue in proportion as the playwright begins more and more to make the main body of his drama a unit of thought and fiction. Consult G. S. B.. The Prologue and Epilogue in English. Literature from Shakespeare to Dryden. (London, 1884). Taken over into oratory the word prologue is also applied to the opening of a speech. See EPILOGUE.
PRoLSS, prigs. JOHANNES (1853— ). A Ger man novelist, son of Robert Pr;;lss. He was born in Dresden. studied at ,Tenn and Leipzig, was literary editor of the Frankfurter Zeitunq (1880-89). and of the Stuttgarter Union (1890 sqq.). He wrote some lyric poetry. a life of Seheffel, and a series of novels and sketches: Ehancipierte Norelicri. (1880) ; In der alpen scltt„lriilte (1889) ; Modelle (1891); Das junge Deutschland (1892) ; and Bildercliirmcr: (1895).
PRoLSS, ROBERT (1821— ). A German drama tist and historian of the drama. He was horn in Dresden and was at first a merchant there, but after 1863 gave himself up wholly to literature. In 1847 he wrote Des Hecht der Liebe, a comedy. His later plays were the tragedies Sophonisbe (1862), ,Michael Kohlhaus ( 1803), and Katharine Howard (1865), and the come dies Eine edge That and Die rerdiiehtige Wahr licit, after Alarcon. llis critical and historical essays include: Erldaterungen au Shakespeares Dramen (1874-89); Das Meiningensche Hof thea ter end die Iiiihnenreform (1S76) ; Katethis inns der (1877; 2d ed. 1899) ; ver sions of Marlow, Webster, and Massinger (1880) ; a life of Heine (1880) ; and Kurzgefasste fie schichte der deutschen Sehauspielkunst (1900).