How does Shakespeare's diction create a tragic tone in the prologue?

Answer 1

You will have to be a lot more specific than this. Even if we confine ourselves to the tragedies, we are talking about "specific word choices" over the course of ten plays lasting about thirty hours all told in performance. And a "tragic tone" is something not confined to the tragedies, any more than a comic tone can only be found in the comedies. Consider these lines from Twelfth Night II, 4:Orsino: And what's her history?Viola: A blank, my lord. She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,
Feed on her damask'd cheek. She pined in thought,
And with a green and yellow melancholy,
She sat like Patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief."Note the use of the word "worm", often associated with death ("They have made worms' meat of me!") Note also the words "melancholy", "pined" and "grief", all denoting great sadness. The tragic tone is enhanced by the juxtaposition of cheerful images with the sad ones: "smiling at grief", and "green and yellow melancholy" All of these give the image of someone who is happy on the outside but secretly being eaten away (like a worm in the bud) from the inside with great sadness, rather like the image of the weeping clown (see I Pagliacci). Of course the speech is even more tragic because of the dramatic irony that the audience knows, but Orsino does not, that Viola is in fact talking about herself and her secret love for him.