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| Character | Gower | |
|---|---|---|
| Gender | Male | |
| Age Range(s) | Young Adult (20-35), Adult (36-50), Senior (>50) | |
| Type of monologue / Character is | Descriptive, Talking to the audience | |
| Type | Serio-comic | |
| Period | Renaissance | |
| Genre | Tragedy, Drama | |
| Description | Prologue: Gower introduces the audience to the story | |
| Location | Prologue | |
Summary
Gower is the narrator of the play. In the prologue he introduces us to the story of the play talking in verse and rhyme. In Antioch, one of the most beautiful cities in Syria, King Antiochus the Great is committing incest with his beautiful daughter. In order to keep suitors away from her he has decided to make all suitors answer a riddle or lose their life. Several men have died trying.
Written by Administrator
| Excerpt |
|---|
| PROLOGUE [Enter GOWER] Before the palace of Antioch To sing a song that old was sung, From ashes ancient Gower is come; Assuming man's infirmities, To glad your ear, and please your eyes. It hath been sung at festivals, On ember-eves and holy-ales; And lords and ladies in their lives Have read it for restoratives: The purchase is to make men glorious; Et bonum quo antiquius, eo melius. If you, born in these latter times, When wit's more ripe, accept my rhymes. And that to hear an old man sing May to your wishes pleasure bring I life would wish, and that I might Waste it for you, like taper-light. This Antioch, then, Antiochus the Great Built up, this city, for his chiefest seat: The fairest in all Syria, I tell you what mine authors say: This king unto him took a fere, Who died and left a female heir, So buxom, blithe, and full of face, As heaven had lent her all his grace; With whom the father liking took, And her to incest did provoke: Bad child; worse father! to entice his own To evil should be done by none: But custom what they did begin Was with long use account no sin. The beauty of this sinful dame Made many princes thither frame, To seek her as a bed-fellow, In marriage-pleasures play-fellow: Which to prevent he made a law, To keep her still, and men in awe, That whoso ask'd her for his wife, His riddle told not, lost his life: So for her many a wight did die, As yon grim looks do testify. What now ensues, to the judgment of your eye I give, my cause who best can justify. |
