THE LIFE OF KING HENRY V PROLOGUE Enter Chorus. Chor. O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend A kingdom for a stage, princes to act Crouch for employment. But pardon, gen- The flat unraised spirits that have dared On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth 10 The vasty fields of France? or may we cram 7. "famine, sword and fire"; this trio is probably suggested by a speech of Henry's, as reported by Holinshed, in which he replies to suppliant citizens, during his siege of Rouen (1419), that Bellona, the goddess of battle, had three handmaidens blood, fire, and famine, all of which were at his choice to use (Hol. iii. 367, ed. Stone).-C. H. H. 9. "spirits that have dared"; so Staunton; Ff. 1, 2, 3, "hath"; F. 4, "spirit, that hath."-I. G. Within this wooden O the very casques And let us, ciphers to this great accompt, Suppose within the girdle of these walls Think, when we talk of horses, that you see Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth; Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times, Who prologue-like your humble patience pray, [Exit. 13. The "Wooden O" was the Globe Theater on the Bankside, which was circular withinside. It would seem that "very” was sometimes used in the sense of mere. "The very casques”; that is, “so much as the casques," or "merely the casques." So in The Taming of the Shrew: "Thou false deluding slave, that feed'st me with the very name of meat."-H. N. H. 18. "on your imaginary forces work"; that is, your powers of imagination: imaginary for imaginative. This indifferent use of the active and passive forms occurs continually in these plays.-H. N. H. 25. "puissance"; (three syllables).-C. H. H. ACT FIRST SCENE I London. An ante-Chamber in the King's palace. Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop of Ely. Cant. My 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 Ely. But how, my lord, shall we resist it now? us, We lose the better half of our possession: 10 For all the temporal lands, which men devout Sc. 1. "Canterbury"; this was Henrie Chichele. Shakespeare follows the chronicles in attributing to him the chief share in the clerical plot for diverting the king's attention from his confiscation bill.-C. H. H. 7-19. This is taken almost literally from Holinshed.-H. N. H. And, to relief of lazars and weak age, A thousand pounds by the year: thus runs the bill. Ely. This would drink deep. Cant. "Twould drink the cup and all. 20 Ely. But what prevention? Cant. The king is full of grace and fair regard. And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him, To envelope and contain celestial spirits. Ely. 30 With such a heady currance, scouring faults; So soon did lose his seat, and all at once, We are blessed in the change. And all-admiring with an inward wish You would desire the king were made a prelate: 19. “A thousand pounds by the year"; "Hall and Holinshed the principal sum. 'And the king to have clerely to his cofers twentie thousand poundes' (Hall). Shakespeare reckons interest therefore at five per cent” (Wright).—C. H. H. Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs, 41 And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears, 50 Which is a wonder how his grace should glean it, His companies unletter'd, rude and shallow, 51, 52. That is, he must have drawn his theory, digested his order and method of thought, from the art and practice of life, instead of shaping the latter by the rules and measures of the former: which is strange, since he has never been seen in the way either of learning the things in question by experience, or of digesting the fruits of experience into theory. Practic and theoric, or practique and theorique, were the old spelling of practice and theory. An apt commentary on the text occurs in A Treatise of Human Learning, by Lord Brooke, who was a star in the same constellation with Shakespeare, and one of the profoundest thinkers of the time. "Againe, the active, necessarie arts Ought to be briefe in bookes, in practise long: By chance and use uphold her mystery.”—H. N. H. |