1    Thus far, with rough and all-unable pen,
2    Our bending author hath pursued the story,
3    In little room confining mighty men,
4    Mangling by starts the full course of their glory.
5    Small time, but in that small most greatly lived
6    This star of England: Fortune made his sword;
7    By which the world's best garden be achieved,
8    And of it left his son imperial lord.
9    Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown'd King
10   Of France and England, did this king succeed;
11   Whose state so many had the managing,
12   That they lost France and made his England bleed:
13   Which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their sake,
14   In your fair minds let this acceptance take.