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 portee, 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.]

[Footnote Ic.7: _The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder._]
_Perilous narrow_ means no more than _very narrow_. In old books
this mode of expression frequently occurs.]

[Footnote Ic.8: _Into a thousand parts divide one man,_] i.e.,
suppose every man to represent a thousand.]

[Footnote Ic.9: _----make imaginary puissance:_] i.e., imagine you
see an enemy.]

ACT I.

SCENE I.--THE PAINTED CHAMBER IN THE ROYAL PALACE AT WESTMINSTER.

[Frequent reference is made in the Chronicles to the Painted
Chamber, as the room wherein Henry V. held his councils.]

_Trumpets sound._

_KING HENRY(B) discovered on his throne (CENTRE)[*], BEDFORD,(C)
GLOSTER,(D) EXETER,(E) WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and others in
attendance._

[Footnote *: The throne is powdered with the letter S. This
decoration made its appearance in the reign of Henry IV., and
has been differently accounted for. The late Sir Samuel Meyrick
supposes it to be the initial letter of Henry's motto,
"Souveraine." The King's costume is copie