This article offers a typology and an analysis of the multiple functions of the prologue by using William Drummond of Hawthornden’s manuscript as a case study. The Scotsman Drummond attended and recorded in his personal papers a series of dramatic performances that took place in Bourges in 1607. The article underscores the gap between the printed and spoken prologue to explore the complex relations between the prologue as text and the prologue as an actor-playwright on the stage.
