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.
-Chorus
King Henry The Fifth Act I,
Prologue, Line 7
I guess it’s best to read the whole prologue here. It’s only
thirty-four lines. No, I’m not going to type out the whole thing, but I will
give you the link. http://shakespeare.mit.edu/henryv/henryv.1.0.html
Okay, I read it. How about you? Well, I guess that doesn’t
matter. In any event the chorus is just trying to set the stage for the
audience, describing a few things that the play will try to represent to them.
They’re just saying that if they had the real thing to show them, Then should the warlike… But of
course they don’t have the real thing, so the audience is going to have to use
a little imagination.
Now, a couple of quick things before I get to my main point.
First, Assume the port of Mars? No, I
don’t think so. I looked at my First Folio and it’s definitely ‘port’, but I’m thinking
that this is a typo in the Folio that’s been carried forth to all subsequent
copies and that this should be ‘part’, as in Assume the part of Mars. At least that’s what I’m thinking. And
second, the next sentence (not included above) refers to ‘gentles all’ which I
believe is being used as the inclusive form of gentlemen. So that’s super, isn’t
it? Gentles all. I used to work for a guy who used the term gentle people to be
inclusive. But this is even better. Gentles all.
So, one other thing I really like in this line is the fact
that famine, sword, and fire are ‘crouching for employment’. They’re waiting in
the wings for their part in the play to come up. This would be a good one for
brother Bill to illustrate. Since Will has given famine, sword, and fire life (otherwise
how can they crouch for employment?), Bill would have to give them life too. He
could do a good job with that. But I’m not sure we’ll ever get to doing the
re-write of this play. Hmm, an illustrated re-write of a history play. That
would be interesting, wouldn’t it? That would be a way to get all the visuals
that the chorus is talking about, visuals that they couldn’t get on the stage.
Hey Bill…..
It's Mr. Sword! He's making a repeat appearance. He's not exactly crouching for employment, but it looks like he's ready to appear in the play!
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