Sunday, January 3, 2016

The Chorus' Prologue, Can someone please explain to me every sentence that they say in Henry V?Can someone tell me what every sentence means...

OK, here is what he is saying but I will summarize each
sentence rather than take it line by line.


A muse is
inspiration, so the Chorus is calling for fiery inspiration where he could create for
the audience a kingdom complete with princes.  It would be worthy of enough for monarchs
to watch.  If he could do this, we would see a warlike Henry V become the champion of
Mars (the god of war).  He compares the results of war like famine, death, and
destruction to the dogs of war.    He then stops and asks his audiences to pardon the
actors because they aren't the real thing.  They are only
pretending.


He  explains that this "cockpit" and "wooden O"
cannot contain the real battle fields of France .  (He calls them a cockpit because in
many of the theatres, an added entertainment was cock fighting.  He calls it  wooden O
because the theatre were round.)


He then charges the
audience to use their imaginations.  He first asks the audience to imagine that on stage
are two mighty monarchies (England & France) and they are at war.  Since they
may leave out some things that are important, the audience is told to use their own
knowledge of events to fill in the gaps.  When you see one man imagine that man is a
thousand men and they are fighting.  Since they can't bring the horses onto the stage,
the audience is asked to imagine them when they are spoken about in the
play.


He reminds the audience that they are a very
important part of creating the magic of theatre.  In front of their eyes they will take
the events of many years and condense it into hours.  The audiences is asked by Chorus
to trust him and let him guide them through the
play.


Finally, he hopes that the audience will enjoy the
play.

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