It opens with a Fore Scene in the Overworld, as the Shade of the Earth asks
It opens with a Fore Scene in the Overworld, as the Shade of the Earth asks "What of the Immanent Will and Its designs?"  Taking place in three parts, nineteen acts, and 130 scenes, its other characters include the Spirits Sinister and Ironic, Lady Hester Stanhope, Emperor Francis, Prince Kutuzof, and George the Third.  FTP, identify this epic poem first published in 1903, a "Drama of the Napoleonic Wars" written by Thomas Hardy.
It opens with a Fore Scene in the Overworld, as the Shade of the Earth asks "What of the Immanent Will and Its designs?"  
The Dynasts