A prologue or prolog is an opening to a story that establishes the context and gives background details, often some earlier story that ties into the main one, and other miscellaneous information. The
Artwork by Gustave Doré.
Title page of 1616 printing of Every Man in His Humour, a 1598 play by the English playwright Ben Jonson. The play belongs to the subgenre of the "humours comedy"
In literature, an epigraph is a phrase, quotation, or poem that is set at the beginning of a document, monograph or section or chapter thereof. The epigraph may serve as a preface to the work; as a su
Prologue
…has over 50 prologues by the author. Their style varies between metaphysical, humoristic, psychological, discussions about the art of the novel, etc. Epigraph Epilogue…
Facsimile of the original title page for William Congreve's The Way of the World published in 1700, on which the epigraph from Horace's Satires can be seen in the bottom quarter.
Epigraph, consisting of an excerpt from the book itself, William Morris's The House of the Wolfings