PROLOGUE

Enter Chorus

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 have dared

10 for a muse] The Chorus or Prologue was a characteristic of very

early Elizabethan drama. Only in this play did Shakespeare introduce each of the five Acts in this manner. (The five choruses of

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 confined two mighty monarchies,
Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:

Pericles cannot be assigned to his pen.) He had already prefixed an Induction at the opening of 2 Hen. IV, and choruses prefaced, in the original Quarto editions, the first two Acts of Rom. and Jul. There is a prologue before the first Act of Henry VIII.

6 port] carriage.

"the

7 famine, sword and fire] According to Holinshed, Henry V, when addressing the citizens of Rouen in 1419, warned them that goddess of battell, called Bellona, had three handmaidens, ever of necessitie attending upon hir, as blood, fire, and famine."

9 unraised] unelevated, humble, lowly.

11 cockpit] place appointed for cock-fighting matches, a scornful reference to the confined area of the theatre.

13 this wooden O] A reference to the newly-erected Globe Theatre, which being of octagonal shape presented a circular interior.

was one of the first pieces produced there.

casques] helmets.

17 accompt] account.

This play

18 imaginary forces] powers of imagination. Cf. Act III, Prol., 1, “im

agined wing."

10

20

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 't is 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.

23 Piece out] Make up.

[Exit.

24 Into a thousand... man] Suppose one man to represent a thousand. 31 an hour-glass] A rough estimate of the time occupied by a theatrical

performance.

32 Chorus] Interpreter. See line 1, supra, and note.

30

AN ANTE-CHAMBER IN THE KING'S PALACE

Enter the ARCHBISHOP of CANTERBURY, and the BISHOP of ELY CANTERBURY

Y LORD, I'LL TELL YOU; that self bill is urged,

Which in the eleventh year of the last king's reign

Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd,

But that the scambling and unquiet time

Did push it out of farther ques

tion.

ELY. But how, my lord, shall we resist it now?

CANT. It must be thought on. If it pass against us,

We lose the better half of our possession:

For all the temporal lands, which men devout

1 CANTERBURY] The speaker is Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury, founder of All Souls College, Oxford. Shakespeare follows