2 For a mufe of fire, that would afcend The brightest heaven of invention! A kingdom for a stage, princes to all, And monarchs to behold the fwelling scene! Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, Allume the port of Mars; and at his heels, Leafbt in, like bounds, should famine, fword, and fire Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all, The flat unraifed fpirit, that bath dar'd, On this unworthy Scaffold, to bring forth So great an object. Can this cock pit bold The vafty field of France? or may we cram, 3 Within this wooden O, the very cafques That did affright the air at Agincourt? O, pardon, fince a crooked figure may Atteft, in little place, a million; And let us, cyphers to this great accompt, 5 On your imaginary forces work. O for a mufe of fire, &c.] This goes upon the notion of the Peripatetic fyftem, which imagines feveral heavens one above another; the last and highest of which was one of fire. WARBURTON. It alludes likewife to the afpiring nature of fire, which, by its levity, at the feparation of the chaos, took the highest feat of all the elements. JOHNSON. -princes to alt, And monarchs to behold-] Shakespeare does not feem to fet distance enough between the performers and fpectators. JOHNSON. 3 Within this wooden O,-] Nothing fhews more evidently the power of custom over language, than that the frequent ufe of calling a circle an O could fo much hide the meanness of the metaphor from Shakespeare, that he has used it many times where he makes his moit eager attempts at dignity of tile. JOHNSON. • The very cafques] The helmets. JOHNSON. Imaginary forces-] Imaginary for imaginative, or your powers of fancy. Active and paffive words are by this author frequently confounded, JOHNSON. Suppofe, within the girdle of these walls Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them Whofe high-up-reared, and abutting fronts THE PERILOUS narrow ocean parts afunder.] Without doubt the author wrote, Whefe high-up-reared and abutting fronts, PERILOUS, THE narrow ocean parts afunder.] For his purpofe is to fhew, that the higheft danger arifes from the shock of their meeting, and that it is but a little thing which keeps them afunder. This fenfe my emendation gives us, as the common reading gives us a contrary; for thofe whom a perilous ocean parts afunder, are in no danger of meeting. WARB, Perilous narrow, in burlesque language meant no more than very narrow. In old books this mode of expreffion occurs perpetually. A perilous broad brim to a hat, a perilous long fword, &c. So in Beaumont and Fletcher's Humourous Lieutenant, "She is perilous crafty." STEEVENS. And make imaginary puissance.] This fhews that Shakespeare was fully fenfible of the abfurdity of fhewing battles on the theatre, which indeed is never done but tragedy becomes farce. Nothing can be reprefented to the eye but by fomething like it, and within a wooden O nothing very like a battle can be exhibited. JOHNSON, Other authors of that age feem to have been sensible of the fame abfurdities. In Heywood's Fair Maid of the Weft, 1631; a Chorus enters and fays, Our stage fo lamely can exprefs a fea "That we are forc'd by Chorus to difcourfe "What should have been in action," &c. STEEVENS, 3 For 'tis your thoughts that now muft deck our kings; Carry them here and there,-] We may read king for kings. The prologue relates only to this fingle play. The mistake was made by referring them to kings which belongs to thoughts. The fenfe is, your thoughts must give the king his proper greatness; carry therefore Carry them here and there, jumping o'er times, Who, prologue-like, your bumble patience pray, therefore your thoughts here and there, jumping over time, and crowding years into an hour. JOHNSON. I am not certain that this obfervation is juft. In this play, the king of France as well as England, makes his appearance, and the fenfe may be this, it must be to your imaginations that our kings are indebted for their royalty. STEEVENS. Sir Thomas Grey, conspirators against the king. Sir Thomas Erpingham, Gower, Fluellen, Mackmorris, Jamy, officers in king Henry's army. Nym, Bardolph, Pistol, Boy, formerly fervants to Falstaff, now foldiers in the king's army. Bates, Court, Williams, foldiers. Charles, king of France. The Dauphin. Duke of Burgundy. Conftable, Orleans, Rambures, Bourbon, Grandpree, French lords. Governor of Harfleur. Montjoy, a herald. Ambaffadors to the king of England. Ifabel, queen of France. Catharine, daughter to the king of France. Alice, a lady attending on the princess Catharine. Chorus. Lords, Meffengers, French and English Soldiers, with other Attendants. The SCENE, at the beginning of the play, lies in England; but afterwards, wholly in France. KING HENRY V. ACT I. SCENE I. An antichamber in the English court, at Kenelworth. Enter the archbishop of Canterbury, and bishop of Ely. 2 ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. M Y lord, I'll tell you-That felf bill is urg'd, Was like, and had indeed against us past, Ely. The life of Henry V.] This play was writ (as appears from a paffage in the chorus to the fifth act) at the time of the earl of Effex's commanding the forces in Ireland in the reign of queen Elizabeth, and not till after Henry the VIth had been played, as may be seen by the conclufion of this play. POPE. The life of Henry V.] The tranfactions comprised in this hiftorical play commence about the latter end of the first, and terminate in the eighth year of this king's reign; when he married Catharine princefs of France, and clofed up the differences betwixt England and that crown. THEOBALD. 2 Archbishop of Canterbury.] This firft fcene was added fince the edition of 1608, which is much fhort of the prefent editions, wherein the fpeeches are generally enlarged and raised: feveral whole fcenes befides, and all the chorus's alfo, were fince added by Shakespeare. POPE. On this fubject a play was written about the time of Shakefpeare; but whether before or after his Henry V. made its appearance, has not yet been abfolutely determined. I have two copies of it in my poffeffion: one without date (which feems much the elder of the two) and another (apparently copied A 4 from |