The Life of Henry the Fifth: ACT I
Introduction ACT I PROLOGUE SCENE I. London. An ante-chamber in the KING'S palace. SCENE II. The same. The Presence chamber. ACT II ACT III ACT IV ACT V About the Play Feedback			Search: All the plays Hamlet Coriolanus Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Richard II Richard III Titus Andronicus Antony and Cleopatra Timon of Athens Henry IV Part 1 Henry IV Part 2 Henry the Fifth Henry VI Part 1 Henry VI Part 2 Henry VI Part 3 Henry VIII King John Pericles Troilus and Cressida All's Well... As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline A Midsummer... Love's Labour's Lost Measure for Measure The Merry Wives... Much Ado about Nothing The Merchant of Venice Twelfth Night The Taming of... The Tempest The Two Gentlemen... The Winter's Tale    for: PROLOGUE Enter Chorus Chorus       O 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! 5     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    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? 15    O, pardon! since a crooked figure may       Attest in little place a million;       And let us, ciphers to this great account,       On your imaginary forces work.       Suppose within the girdle of these walls 20    Are now confined 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, 25    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, 30    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 Return to top of page ... or ... Go to next scene