t Mr. Collier is probably more correct in assuming that they were
often retrenched by the printer, because they could not be brought
within the compass of a page, and because he was unwilling to add
another leaf. In addition to those mentioned above, the prologues to
"King Henry VIII.," "Troilus and Cressida," and "Romeo and Juliet" are
extant, and have the peculiarity of informing the audience, after the
old classical fashion, something as to the nature of the entertainment
to be set before them. To the tragedy of "The Murder of Gonzago,"
contained in "Hamlet," Shakespeare, no doubt, recognising established
usage, provided the prologue:

For us and for our tragedy
Here stooping to your clemency,
We beg your hearing patiently.

Steele, writing in _The Guardian,_ in 1713, expresses much concern for
the death of Mr. Peer, of the Theatre Royal, "who was an actor at the
Restoration, and took his theatrical degree with Betterton, Kynaston,
and Harris." Mr. Peer, it seems, especially distinguished himself in
two characters, "which no man ever could touch but himself." One of
these was the Apothecary in "Caius Marius," Otway's wretched
adaptation of "Romeo and Juliet;" the other was the speaker of the
prologue to the play in "Hamlet." It is plain that Mr. Peer's
professional rank was not high; for these characters are not usually
undertaken by performers of note. Steele admits that Peer's eminence
lay in a narrow compass, and to that attributes "the enlargement of
his sphere of action" by his employment as property-man in addition to
his histrionic duties. Peer, however, is described as delivering the
three lines of prologue "better than any man else in the world," and
with "universal applause." He spoke "with such an air as represented
that he was an actor and with such an inferior manner as only acting
an actor, as made the others on the stage appear real great persons
and not representatives. This was a nicety in acting that none but the
most subtle player could so much as conceive." It is conceivable,
however, that some of this subtlety existed rather in the fancy of the
critic than in the method of the player. This story of Mr. Peer is
hardly to be equalled; yet Davies relates of Boheme, the actor, that
when, upon his first appearance upon the stage, he played with some
"itinerants" at Stratford-le-Bow, his feeling but simple manner of
delivering Francisco's short speech in "Hamlet"--

For this relief