1    In Troy, there lies the scene. From isles of Greece
2    The princes orgulous, their high blood chafed,
3    Have to the port of Athens sent their ships,
4    Fraught with the ministers and instruments
5    Of cruel war: sixty and nine, that wore
6    Their crownets regal, from the Athenian bay
7    Put forth toward Phrygia; and their vow is made
8    To ransack Troy, within whose strong immures
9    The ravish'd Helen, Menelaus' queen,
10   With wanton Paris sleeps; and that's the quarrel.
11   To Tenedos they come;
12   And the deep-drawing barks do there disgorge
13   Their warlike fraughtage: now on Dardan plains
14   The fresh and yet unbruised Greeks do pitch
15   Their brave pavilions: Priam's six-gated city,
16   Dardan, and Tymbria, Helias, Chetas, Troien,
17   And Antenorides, with massy staples
18   And corresponsive and fulfilling bolts,
19   Sperr up the sons of Troy.
20   Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits,
21   On one and other side, Trojan and Greek,
22   Sets all on hazard: and hither am I come
23   A prologue arm'd, but not in confidence
24   Of author's pen or actor's voice, but suited
25   In like conditions as our argument,
26   To tell you, fair beholders, that our play
27   Leaps o'er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils,
28   Beginning in the middle, starting thence away
29   To what may be digested in a play.
30   Like or find fault; do as your pleasures are:
31   Now good or bad, 'tis but the chance of war.