to introduce, as in
the case of _Richard the Second_, a historical episode of action,
exhibiting the reception of King Henry on returning to his capital,
after the French expedition.

It would be impossible to include the manifold incidents of the royal
progress in one scene: neither could all the sites on which they
actually took place be successively exhibited. The most prominent are,
therefore, selected, and thrown into one locality--the approach to old
London bridge. Our audiences have previously witnessed the procession of
Bolingbroke, followed in silence by his deposed and captive predecessor.
An endeavor will now be made to exhibit the heroic son of that very
Bolingbroke, in his own hour of more lawful triumph, returning to the
same city; while thousands gazed upon him with mingled devotion and
delight, many of whom, perhaps, participated in the earlier reception of
his father, sixteen years before, under such different and painful
circumstances. The Victor of Agincourt is hailed, not as a successful
usurper, but as a conqueror; the adored sovereign of his people; the
pride of the nation; and apparently the chosen instrument of heaven,
crowned with imperishable glory. The portrait of this great man is drawn
throughout the play with the pencil of a master-hand. The pleasantry of
the prince occasionally peeps through the dignified reserve of the
monarch, as instanced in his conversations with Fluellen, and in the
exchange of gloves with the soldier Williams. His bearing is invariably
gallant, chivalrous, and truly devout; surmounting every obstacle by his
indomitable courage; and ever in the true feeling of a christian
warrior, placing his trust in the one Supreme Power, the only Giver of
victory! The introductions made throughout the play are presented less
with a view to spectacular effect, than from a desire to render the
stage a medium of historical knowledge, as well as an illustration of
dramatic poetry. _Accuracy_, not _show_, has been my object; and where
the two coalesce, it is because the one is inseparable from the other.
The entire scene of the episode has been modelled upon the facts related
by the late Sir Harris Nicholas, in his translated copy of a highly
interesting Latin MS., accidentally discovered in the British Museum,
written by a Priest, who accompanied the English army; and giving a
detailed account of every incident, from the embarkation at Southampton
to the return to London. The author t