Chapter: I Come no more to make you laugh, Things now,
  That beare a Weighty, and a Serious Brow,
  Sad, high, and working, full of State and Woe:
  Such Noble Scoenes, as draw the Eye to flow
  We now present. Those that can Pitty, heere
  May (if they thinke it well) let fall a Teare,
  The Subiect will deserue it. Such as giue
  Their Money out of hope they may beleeue,
  May heere finde Truth too. Those that come to see
  Onely a show or two, and so agree,
  The Play may passe: If they be still, and willing,
  Ile vndertake may see away their shilling
  Richly in two short houres. Onely they
  That come to heare a Merry, Bawdy Play,
  A noyse of Targets: Or to see a Fellow
  In a long Motley Coate, garded with Yellow,
  Will be deceyu'd. For gentle Hearers, know
  To ranke our chosen Truth with such a show
  As Foole, and Fight is, beside forfeyting
  Our owne Braines, and the Opinion that we bring
  To make that onely true, we now intend,
  Will leaue vs neuer an vnderstanding Friend.
  Therefore, for Goodnesse sake, and as you are knowne
  The First and Happiest Hearers of the Towne,
  Be sad, as we would make ye. Thinke ye see
  The very Persons of our Noble Story,
  As they were Liuing: Thinke you see them Great,
  And follow'd with the generall throng, and sweat
  Of thousand Friends: Then, in a moment, see
  How soone this Mightinesse, meets Misery:
  And if you can be merry then, Ile say,
  A Man may weepe vpon his Wedding day.

 Prologue is a direct address from the dramatist to the audience. He says that this is a sad play capable of arousing pity. He adds that those who have come to witness the historical truth or watch a good show will be satisfied. But those who have come expecting a senseless comedy will go away disappointed. The dramatist feels that, by mocking something as serious as this by making it a farce, he will win the audiences scorn. He appeals to the audience to be freely affected by the pathos of its theme to see the characters of the play as if they were alive and to follow these lives as they fall from the pinnacle of glory to the depths of misery and less. He concludes by stating that if after watching this the audience is still untouched by sadness, then he is willing to let that a man can be sad on his wedding day.

