Ovid.
Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci" also begins with a prologue, but it is spoken
by one of the people of the play; whether in his character as Tonio of
the tragedy or Pagliaccio of the comedy there is no telling. He speaks
the sentiments of the one and wears the motley of the other. Text and
music, however, are ingeniously contrived to serve as an index to the
purposes of the poet and the method and material of the composer. In
his speech the prologue tells us that the author of the play is fond of
the ancient custom of such an introduction, but not of the old purpose.
He does not employ it for the purpose of proclaiming that the tears and
passions of the actors are but simulated and false. No! He wishes to
let us know that his play is drawn from life as it is--that it is true.
It welled up within him when memories of the past sang in his heart and
was written down to show us that actors are human beings like unto
ourselves.

An unnecessary preachment, and if listened to with a critical
disposition rather an impertinence, as calculated to rob us of the
pleasure of illusion which it is the province of the drama to give.
Closely analyzed, Tonio's speech is very much of a piece with the
prologue which Bully Bottom wanted for the play of "Pyramus" in
Shakespeare's comedy. We are asked to see a play. In this play there is
another play. In this other play one of the actors plays at
cross-purposes with the author--forgets his lines and himself
altogether and becomes in reality the man that he seems to be in the
first play. The prologue deliberately aims to deprive us of the thrill
of surprise at the unexpected denouement, simply that he may tell us
what we already know as well as he, that an actor is a human being.

Plainly then, from a didactic point of view, this prologue is a
gratuitous impertinence. Not so its music. Structurally, it is little
more than a loose-jointed pot-pourri; but it serves the purpose of a
thematic catalogue to the chief melodic incidents of the play which is
to follow. In this it bears a faint resemblance to the introduction to
Berlioz's "Romeo and Juliet" symphony. It begins with an energetic
figure,

[figure: a musical score excerpt]

which is immediately followed by an upward scale-passage with a saucy
flourish at the end--not unlike the crack of a whiplash:--

[figure: a musical score excerpt]

It helps admirably to picture the bustling activity of the festa into
which we are soon to be prec