The piece to which Nash alludes is the old anonymous play of King Henry V. which had been exhibited before the year 1589. Tarlton, the comedian, who performed in it both the parts of the Chief Justice and the Clown, having died in that year. It was entered on the Stationers' books in 1594, and, I believe, printed in that year, though I have not met with a copy of that date. An edition of it, printed in 1598, was in the valuable collection of Dr. Wright.

The play before us appears to have been written in the middle of the year 1599. The old King Henry V. may be found among Six old Plays on which Shakspeare founded, &c. printed by S. Leacroft, 1778.

MALONE.

Conspiratory against the King.

homas Ermogram. Gower, Fluellen, Macmosers on King Henry's Army.

Bares Court Vams, Soldiers in the same.
No, Barton, Estoi, formerly Servants to Falstaff,

Chares ne Sixth, Ung of France.

Lewis, ne Dawun

Rambures, nd Grandpree, French Lords.

Governor y Harrieur. Montjoy, a French Herald.

Ambassadors to the King of England.

Isabel, Queen of France.

Katharine, Daughter of Charles and Isabel.

Aice, a Lady attending on the Princess Katharine.

Quickly, Pistol's Wife, an Hostess.

Lords, Ladies, Officers, French and English Soldiers, Messengers, and Attendants.

The SCENE, at the Beginning of the Play, lies in England; but afterwards wholly in France.

Enter CHORUS.

O, for a muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention!1 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 spirit, 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

O, for a muse of fire, &c.] This goes, says Warburton, upon the notion of the Peripatetic system, which imagines several heavens one above another; the last and highest of which was one of fire. It alludes likewise to the aspiring nature of fire, which, by its levity, at the separation of the chaos, took the highest seat of all the elements.

JOHNSON.

princes to act,

And monarchs to behold - Shakspeare does not seem to set

distance enough between the performers and spectators.

3 Within this wooden O,] An allusion to the theatre where this history was exhibited, being, from its circular form, called The Globe.

4

S

- the very casques,] The helmets.

imaginary forces - Imaginary for imaginative, or your

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.

• And make imaginary puissance:] This shows that Shakspeare was fully sensible of the absurdity of showing battles on the theatre, which, indeed, is never done, but tragedy becomes farce. Nothing can be represented to the eye, but by something like it, and within a wooden O nothing very like a battle can be exhibited.

KING HENRY V.

ACT I.

SCENE I. London. An Ante-chamber in the King's Palace.

Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of Ely.

Cant. My lord, I'll tell you, that self bill is

urg'd, Which, in the eleventh year o' 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 further question.

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
By testament have given to the church,
Would they strip from us; being valued thus,-
As much as would maintain, to the king's honour,
Full fifteen earls, and fifteen hundred knights;
Six thousand and two hundred good esquires;
And, to relief of lazars, and weak age,

Of indigent faint souls, past corporal toil,

7

of Canterbury,] Henry Chicheley, a Carthusian monk, recently promoted to the see of Canterbury.

8

-Ely.] John Fordham, consecrated 1388; died 1426.