This prologue was composed by the Catholic William Blundell in December 1647, just over a year after the first Civil War concluded in 1646. It appears in his commonplace book – called ‘The Great Hodge Podge’ – and the prologue was written to accompany a play to celebrate the Christmas festivities after ‘som Country Neighbors’ had entreated Blundell to write a drama. Blundell does not record what the Christmas play was about, though the prologue reveals a real-life drama that Blundell, his family, his neighbours, and the whole country had watched unfold before them, and one in which many, including Blundell, had participated. The play observed the end of the war as documented by the opening lines which recall that after the nation had experienced such bitter storms of war the country was now at peace. William Blundell was a prominent Lancashire gentleman whose manor of Little Crosby and its surrounding lands were a notorious safe-haven for local Catholics, complete with its own cemetery for Catholics to be interred. Yet, notwithstanding his known Catholicism, he preserved good relationships with his neighbours, which is why he composed a play especially for them. The prologue alludes to the burdens that the war had inflicted upon the nation, but now soldiers and civilians were able to live in harmony once again, their swords sheathed, and safely returned home to their communities.

Yet, just a few months after this stage play was performed, the country was at war once again after revolts broke out across Kent and other areas of the country. In a printed order passed in August 1648, it was resolved by Parliament that ‘all persons whatsoever, Subjects of this Kingdom, or others, that do or shall adhere unto, joyn with, or voluntarily ayd or assist the Prince in this War by Sea or by Land, are Traytors and Rebels, and ought to be so proceeded against as Traytors and Rebels’.