Page 2759 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

PROLOGUE IT

Enter Prologue in armour.

PROLOGUE

In Troy there lies the scene. From isles of Greece
The princes orgulous, their high blood chafed,
Have to the port of Athens sent their ships
Fraught with the ministers and instruments

Of cruel war. Sixty and nine that wore [5]
Their crownets regal from th’Athenian bay
Put forth toward Phrygia, and their vow is made
To ransack Troy, within whose strong immures

The ravished Helen, Menelaus’ queen,
With wanton Paris sleeps − and that’s the quarrel. [10]
To Tenedos they come,
And the deep-drawing barks do there disgorge

Their warlike fraughtage; now on Dardan plains
The fresh and yet unbruisèd Greeks do pitch
Their brave pavilions. Priam’s six-gated city, [15]
Dardan and Timbria, Helias, Chetas, Troien,

And Antenorides, with massy staples
And corresponsive and fulfilling bolts,
Stir up the sons of Troy.
Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits [20]

On one and other side, Trojan and Greek,
Sets all on hazard. And hither am I come,
A Prologue armed, but not in confidence
Of author’s pen or actor’s voice, but suited

In like conditions as our argument, [25]
To tell you, fair beholders, that our play
Leaps o’er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils,
Beginning in the middle; starting thence away

To what may be digested in a play.
Like or find fault; do as your pleasures are; [30]
Now good or bad, ’tis but the chance of war.