Prologue (part of the work)

In ancient Greek tragedy, that was the name of the part of the play that preceded the first song of the choir , the people .

The prologues of Aeschylus and Sophocles directly indicate the position of the characters, the development of which is the content of the drama . They organically enter into action and combine in themselves all the conditions of the drama, both in terms of the relationships and moods of the persons participating in them, and in the form of presentation (usually a dialogue ). In the prologue, Euripides gives a dry and cold account of the events preceding the start of the dramatic action, and sometimes an indication of the outcome of the play. The presentation in the prologues of Euripides is mostly monological and, moreover, on behalf of some deity.

In the Roman comedy, the prologue was a more or less detailed presentation of the plot , the point of departure and development. Often, a request to the audience about the affectionate reception of actors joined here. During Terence, the prologue was based on an appeal for gracious attention to the author, or to the steward of the play, or both. Attacks on the literary opponents of the poet were also placed here. The prologues of Plaut's comedies that have reached us do not belong to him: they are written for posthumous representations and are distinguished by verbosity and meaninglessness.

In the medieval mystery, the prologue turned into a sermon or prayer .

The prologue of one morality play of the early sixteenth century reports how the author, transferred on the threshold of hell , overheard the conversation of Satan with Lucifer about the means of seducing people; his play becomes a revelation of the machinations of the unclean.

The British sometimes had the name of a prologue to an actor who, going to the front of the curtain in front of the curtain , pronounced a monologue in the form of a personal appeal to the audience. In Shakespeare , the choir plays the role of a prologue, then (in “ Henry IV ”) a “ rumor ”, all covered with painted languages.

Moliere's prologues to Amphitrione and the Imaginary Sick , Racine to Esther (Prologue - Piété), etc. also have the character of a monologue.

But already among Italian comedians, the prologue appears in the form of a scene, for example, between the director of the theater and the actor: the reception used by Goethe in one of the prologues to Faust . Under the pen of Goethe and Schiller (prologue to Wallenstein ’s Camp ), the prologue becomes a meaningful and theoretically interesting form. The poet either transfers the viewer with the help of a prologue to the atmosphere in which the drama’s intrigue develops, or leads it into connection with the higher principles that rule life, and thereby gives the personal drama a broad, universal meaning. Such are the prologue in the sky to Faust, the prologue of Don Juan by Alexei Tolstoy: they do not so much prepare future events as they cover them, move the stage forward, transferring the viewer's thought from the real world depicted here to its supersensible foundations.

As an imitation of drama also in epic works (large poems and novels ), the introductory part, telling about the events preceding the beginning of the main work , is called a prologue .

• Epilogue

• Prologue, part of the play // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.