Scene Notes
Act I Chorus
[Ic.1] O, for a muse of fire, &c.] This goes, says Warburton, upon the notion of the Peripatetic system, which imagines several heavens one above another, the last and highest of which was one of fire. It alludes, likewise, to the aspiring nature of fire, which, by its levity, at the separation of the chaos, took the highest seat of all the elements.
[Ic.2] Assume the port of Mars;] i.e., the demeanour, the carriage, air of Mars. From portée, French.
[Ic.3] Can this cockpit hold] Shakespeare probably calls the stage a cockpit, as the most diminutive enclosure present to his mind.
[Ic.4] Upon this little stage] The original text is “within this wooden O,” in allusion, probably, to the theatre where this history was exhibited, being, from its circular form, called The Globe.
[Ic.5] ——the very casques] Even the helmets, much less the men by whom they were worn.
[Ic.6] ——imaginary forces] Imaginary for imaginative, or your powers of fancy. Active and passive words are by Shakespeare frequently confounded.
[Ic.7] The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder.] Perilous narrow means no more than very narrow. In old books this mode of expression frequently occurs.
[Ic.8] Into a thousand parts divide one man,] i.e., suppose every man to represent a thousand.