r consequent success, can continue to
beguile me into a belief that the end will compensate for the many
attendant troubles and anxieties. It would have been impossible, on my
part, to gratify my enthusiastic wishes, in the illustration of
Shakespeare, had not my previous career as an actor placed me in a
position of comparative independence with regard to speculative
disappointment. Wonderful as have been the yearly receipts, yet the vast
sums expended--sums, I have every reason to believe, not to be
paralleled in any theatre of the same capability throughout the
world--make it advisable that I should now retire from the self-imposed
responsibility of management, involving such a perilous outlay; and the
more especially, as a building so restricted in size as the Princess's,
renders any adequate return utterly hopeless.

My earnest aim has been to promote the well-being of my Profession; and
if, in any degree, I have attained so desirable an object, I trust I may
not be deemed presumptuous in cherishing the belief, that my arduous
struggle has won for me the honourable reward of--Public Approval.

CHARLES KEAN.

KING HENRY THE FIFTH.

_Enter CHORUS._

O for a muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention,[1]
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars;[2] and, at his heels,
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire,
Crouch for employment.(A) But pardon, gentles all,
The flat unraised spirit that hath dar'd
On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
So great an object: Can this cockpit hold[3]
The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
Upon this little stage[4] the very casques[5]
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
Attest in little place, a million;
And let us, cyphers to this great accompt,
On your imaginary forces[6] work.
Suppose within the girdle of these walls
Are now confined two mighty monarchies,
Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:[7]
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
Into a thousand parts divide one man,[8]
And make imaginary puissance;[9]
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times,
Turning the accomplishment of many years
Into an hour-