As audience tastes tended
toward the visual elements of theatre, people found more and more
ways to incorporate spectacular images into their plays. One of the
best opportunities for this was during the prologues and epilogues
of the plays. Since emphasis was taken off the words themselves, the
art of delivering the prologue/epilogue was taken to entirely new
levels. Some productions dressed a woman in man's clothes to deliver
the prologue whilst titillating the male audiences at the same time
(see Transvestite Playing for more).
Here, we see a rendering of Joe Haines delivering an epilogue on an
ass, simply to gratify the spectacular needs of his audience.