The Elizabethan prologue : text, actor, performance -- Prologue as threshold and usher -- Authority and authorization in the pre-Shakespearean prologue -- Frivolous jestures versus matter of worth : Christopher Marlowe -- Kingly harp and iron pen in the playhouse : George Peele -- From hodge-podge to scene individable : John Lyly -- Henry V and the signs of power : William Shakespeare.