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"For a mufe of fire, that would afcend
The brightest heaven of invention!
A kingdom for a flage, 2 princes to aðl,
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, fhould famine, fword, and fire
Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all,
The flat unraifed fpirit, that hath dar'd,
On this unworthy Scaffold, to bring forth
So great an object. Can this cock-pit hold
The vafty field of France? or may we cram,
3 Within this wooden , 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 laft 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 act,

And monarchs to behold-] Shakespeare does not seem to fet diftance 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 moft eager attempts at dignity of tile.

JOHNSON.

The very cafques] The helmets. JOHNSON. s Imaginary.forces-] Imaginary for imaginative, or your powers of fancy. Active and paffive words are by this author frequently confounded. JOHNSON.

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Suppofe, within the girdle of thefe walls
Are now confin'd two mighty monarchies;
Whofe high-up-reared and abutting fronts
The perilous narrow ocean parts afunder.
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
Into a thousand parts divide one man,
7 And make imaginary puiffance.

Think, when we talk of horses, that you fee them
Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth.

3 For 'tis your thoughts that now muft deck our kings;

Whofe high-up-reared, and abutting fronts

Carry

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 highest 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 those whom a perilous ocean parts afunder, are in no danger of meeting. WARB. in burlefque language meant no more than In old books this mode of expreffion occurs perpetually. A perilous broad brim to a hat, a perilous long fword, &c.

Perilous narrow,

very narrow.

So in Beaumont and Fletcher's Humourous Lieutenant,

"She is perilous crafty."

STEEVENS.

And make imaginary puiffance.] 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 ftage fo lamely can express a fea

That we are forc'd by Chorus to difcourfe

What fhould have been in action," &c. STEEVENS. For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings;

Carry them here and there,-] We may read king for kings. The prologue relates only to this fingle play. The miftake 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

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