Here then will we begin the story: onlyadding thus much to that which hath been said, that it is a foolish thing to make a long prologue, and to be short in the story itself.

-Bible (Apocrypha)
Maccabees 2:32.

   Courtship to marriage, as a very witty prologue to a very dull play.

-Congreve,William
  Bellmore to Belinda. The Old Bachelor, act 5, sc.10.