When is a prologue (not) a prologue? The second prologue in Cornelis van Ghistele's Van Eneas en Dido

This study starts to address the limited scholarship on identifying prologues and epilogues in dramatic texts. While many frame texts are easily recognisable, there are instances where classification is ambiguous. Using Cornelis van Ghistele’s Aeneas and Dido as a test case, the article explores criteria for determining the function of frame texts. The play, staged in Antwerp in 1552 (or 1551), includes two frame texts marked as ‘prologue’ in the manuscript, although the editor decided one of them was in fact the epilogue. Examining the manuscript evidence, including labels and structural elements, as well as the content of the frame texts, the analysis concludes that the second frame text is the prologue to the second play of Cornelis van Ghistele’s Aeneas and Dido and not an epilogue.