Henry V (The Play, Historical Background and Analysis of the Character in the Play). William Hazlitt

      PROLOGUE.

       Table of Contents

      [Enter CHORUS.]

      CHORUS.

       O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend

       The brightest heaven of invention,

       A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,

       And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!

       Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,

       Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,

       Leash’d in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire

       Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all,

       The flat unraised spirits that hath dar’d

       On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth

       So great an object. Can this cockpit hold

       The vasty fields of France? Or may we cram

       Within this wooden O the very casques

       That did affright the air at Agincourt?

       O, pardon! since a crooked figure may

       Attest in little place a million;

       And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,

       On your imaginary forces work.

       Suppose within the girdle of these walls

       Are now confin’d two mighty monarchies,

       Whose high upreared and abutting fronts

       The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder;

       Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts:

       Into a thousand parts divide one man,

       And make imaginary puissance;

       Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them

       Printing their proud hoofs i’ the receiving earth.

       For ‘tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,

       Carry them here and there, jumping o’er times,

       Turning the accomplishment of many years

       Into an hour-glass: for the which supply,

       Admit me Chorus to this history;

       Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray,

       Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.

      [Exit.]