It is needful for them to "make imaginary
puissance," if the play is to triumph. It is their "thoughts" that
"must deck" the kings of the stage, if the dramatist's meaning is to
get home. The poet modestly underestimated the supreme force of his
own imaginative genius when giving these admonitions to his hearers.
But they are warnings of universal application, and can never be
safely ignored.
Such an exordium as the chorus before _Henry V._ would indeed be
pertinent to every stage performance of great drama in any age or
country. It matters not whether the spectacular machinery be of royal
magnificence or of poverty-stricken squalor. Let us make the
extravagant assumption that all the artistic genius in the world and
all the treasure in the Bank of England were placed at the command of
a theatrical manager in order to enable him to produce a great play on
his stage supremely well from his own scenic point of view. Even then
it would be neither superfluous nor impertinent for the manager to
adjure the audience to piece out the "imperfections" of the scenery
with their "thoughts" or imagination. The spectator's "imaginary
puissance" is, practically in every circumstance, the key-stone of the
dramatic illusion.
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