Page 1717 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

ACT V IT

Enter Chorus.

CHORUS
Vouchsafe to those that have not read the story,

That I may prompt them: and of such as have,
I humbly pray them to admit th’ excuse
Of time, of numbers, and due course of things,

Which cannot in their huge and proper life [5]
Be here presented. Now we bear the King
Toward Calais: grant him there; there seen,
Heave him away upon your wingèd thoughts
Athwart the sea. Behold, the English beach

Pales in the flood with men, [with] wives, and boys, [10]
Whose shouts and claps out-voice the deep-mouth’d sea,
Which, like a mighty whiffler, ’fore the King

Seems to prepare his way: so let him land,
And solemnly see him set on to London.
So swift a pace hath thought that even now [15]
You may imagine him upon Blackheath;
Where that his lords desire him to have borne

His bruised helmet and his bended sword
Before him through the city. He forbids it,
Being free from vainness and self-glorious pride, [20]

Giving full trophy, signal and ostent,
Quite from himself, to God. But now behold,
In the quick forge and working-house of thought,
How London doth pour out her citizens.
The Mayor and all his brethren in best sort, [25]

Like to the senators of th’ antique Rome,
With the plebeians swarming at their heels,
Go forth and fetch their conqu’ring Cæsar in:

As, by a lower but loving likelihood,
Were now the general of our gracious Empress, [30]