Summary
The Prologue opens with three pages on stage. The pages argue over who gets to wear the black cloak, the garment traditionally worn by the speaker of the Prologue. Eventually, the pages decide to draw lots for the cloak. Anaides, one of the losers in the draw, begins revealing the plot of the play to the audience. The two other pages attempt to stop him by intervening and covering his mouth. The three actors continue fighting while criticizing the author of the play and its audience.
In Act One, the goddess Diana, also referred to as Cynthia, has implemented "solemn revels" in the valley of Gargaphie in Greece. Cupid and Mercury appear on stage, and they begin to argue and insult one another before Mercury eventually admits rhetorical defeat. Cupid informs Mercury about the revels and says he has a plan to disguise himself as a page so he can attend the revels undetected.
Meanwhile, Mercury awakens Echo, who gives a lengthy lament for Narcissus. Echo loved Narcissus, but after drinking from the fountain of self-love, Narcissus became enamored only with himself. The courtier Amorphus enters and drinks from the fountain. Crites and Asotus enter, and Crites introduces Asotus to Amorphus. More courtiers enter and Crites delivers a lengthy speech about the dangers of vanity.
Analysis
Ben Jonson is best known for his satirical comedies, and while Cynthia's Revels is not counted among his best plays, it does contain many of the elements of a typical Jonsonian satire. Nowhere is this ironic tone more prevalent than in the Prologue, which features three pages breaking the "fourth wall" of the theater as they discuss the play, criticize the audience, and squabble on stage over who deserves a speaking role. This argument – though largely irrelevant to the plot of the play proper – helps establish early on the lighthearted tone of the play, while simultaneously poking fun at the conventions of the early modern theater. When the three pages fight over the black cloak (which denotes the speaker of the Prologue), they call attention to the traditions of an already-established early modern theatrical practice. The pages' lowly nature places an ironic spin on what was typically a refined and regal role.
In Act One, Jonson establishes the stakes of the play largely through foreshadowing. When Mercury calls upon Echo, she delivers a lengthy lament for her beloved Narcissus – so elaborate is her grief, in fact, that Mercury implores her to stop talking multiple times. In describing how Narcissus drank from the spring and fell in love with himself, Echo foreshadows the eventual fates of the courtiers who begin to appear in the latter half of Act One. The story of Narcissus lingers over the "solemn revels" of the play as a cautionary tale that few characters heed. In this way, the play establishes early on its central criticism of the court: that those close to Queen Elizabeth I are full of vanity and self-interest.
