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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  3068 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks [1891, oil on canvas]

Can you put the speech in a simpler language? I'm afraid my grasp on English fails me when it comes to Shakespeare.





blackbootz  ·  3068 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Sure, I can try. The speech occurs shortly before the Battle of Agincourt on St. Crispin's Day, October 25, 1415. In Shakespeare's play Henry V, the title character makes a brief speech to his English army, in response to one of his lord and lieutenant's wishing they had more soldiers to fight against the numerically superior French. The speech is longer, but from where I first started the speech:

    This story shall the good man teach his son;

The story of this battle shall be passed down from father to son, as an example of bravery.

    And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,

    From this day to the ending of the world,

    But we in it shall be remembered-

And not another October 25th will go by without everyone remembering us and what we did here.

    We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

The most famous line from this speech. A call to brotherly bonds. Even though we come from different mothers, our presence here brings us as close together as though we were family.

    For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

    Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

    This day shall gentle his condition;

It doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, you are my brother. Even if your past actions were immoral or cowardly, your presence here today cleans your character.

    And gentlemen in England now a-bed

    Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,

Even noble-born lords back home will think they they are cursed because they are not here with us, on this most special of days.

    And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

    That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

And those back home will shrink if the conversation ever turns to this battle, they will think themselves less than fully man, because they were home instead of here.

user-inactivated  ·  3068 days ago  ·  link  ·