My earnest aim has been to promote the well-being of my Profession; and if, in any degree, I have attained so desirable an object, I trust I may not be deemed presumptuous in cherishing the belief, that my arduous struggle has won for me the honourable reward of--Public Approval. CHARLES KEAN. KING HENRY THE FIFTH. _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;[2] and, at his heels, Leash’d in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire, Crouch for employment.(A) 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[3] The vasty fields of France? or may we cram Upon this little stage[4] the very casques[5] That did affright the air at Agincourt? O, pardon! since a crooked figure may Attest in little place, a million; And let us, cyphers to this great accompt, On your imaginary forces[6] 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:[7] Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts; Into a thousand parts divide one man,[8] And make imaginary puissance;[9] 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._ [Footnote Ic.1: _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.] [Footnote Ic.2: _Assume the port of Mars;_] i.e., the demeanour, the carriage, air of Mars. From portée, French.] [Footnote Ic.3: _Can this cockpit hold_] Shakespeare probably calls the stage a cockpit, as the most diminutive enclosure present to his mind.] [Footnote Ic.4: _Upon this little stage_] The original text is “within this wooden O,” in allusion, probably, to the theatre where this history was exhibited, being, from its _circular_ form, called _The Globe_.] [Footnote Ic.5: _----the very +casques+_] Even the helmets, much less the men by whom they were worn.] [Footnote Ic.6: _----+imaginary+ forces_] _Imaginary_ for _imaginative_, or your powers of fancy. Active and passive words are by Shakespeare frequently confounded.]