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This one is going to be long. Agincourt (1415), Shakespeare, Henry V, and History. Read at your own peril.
When I audition, despite being far too old...apparently, from me, directors find the Shakespearean “St. Crispin’s Day” speech believable. The irony is that I don’t believe in that version of “honor.” Though I do believe in honor, in the modern sense, and fellowship.
It occurs to me that it also partially resonates because I do know the history. As an acting coach at the Shakespeare Theater once told me, “Bob, I think you’re so good because you know what’s behind them. You’re crossing the line. You’re not acting...for you it’s reliving.”
Perhaps a bit of an overstatement, but it got me to thinking. I always unconsciously assumed everyone else knows the It occurs to me, however, that it also partially resonates because I do know the history.
Accordingly, here is St. Crispin’s Day, Wm. Shakespeare, with explanatory notes in ( ), Rbt. Bateman. The battle took place on 25 October 1415.
“KING. What's he that wishes so?
My cousin, Westmorland? No, my fair cousin; If we are mark'd to die, we are enough to do our country loss; and if to live, the fewer men, the greater share of honour.”
My cousin, Westmorland? No, my fair cousin; If we are mark'd to die, we are enough to do our country loss; and if to live, the fewer men, the greater share of honour.”
(Shakespeare is taking liberties here. The earl of Westmoreland wasn’t there. For Americans: “Westmoreland” isn’t a place, it’s a title.)
(Here he is also displaying the medieval concept of “honor” as a commodity. Something to be gained, or lost, in a transactional way.)
“God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more. By Jove, I am not covetous for gold, nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;”
(In other words, nothing but honor matters. And he doesn’t see honor as something you can acquire by having a lot of twitter followers, um, I mean people at your royal Court. Only battle brings true honor.)
“It yearns me not if men my garments wear; Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.”
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.”
(Much the same. “My garments wear” refers to the livery, we would call them uniforms, of men who followed him personally.)
(Henry was not an “absolute” king. That wouldn’t come for another 250-300 years or so. And there was no national army. He had to negotiate with his dukes and earls to join him.)
(When they did, “their” men wore the duke’s/earl’s “uniform.” Only Henry’s personal forces wore his livery. Which brings us to the REAL purpose of the speech.)
(Henry’s back was against the wall. Deep in France, out of supplies, and though he was king his nominal subordinates could take a walk on their own at any point. That was still SOP when Shakespeare wrote this play.)
(It’s a speech to buck up his earls/dukes, get them on his side, and only as an afterthought play upon the sentiments of the men...but even that was to get the dukes/earls on side, because then they had to fall in line or lose THEIR men.)
“No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England. God's peace! I would not lose so great an honor as one man more methinks would share from me. For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!”
(Same. Honor is a commodity.)
(Same. Honor is a commodity.)
“Rather proclaim it, Westmorland, through my host, that he which hath no stomach to this fight, let him depart;”
(Now he’s really putting the dukes/earls on warning. THEIR men can walk, if they want. Which has the effect of forcing those leaders to also rally their men, or lose face if some of them bolt.)
“His passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse”
(In short, a get out of jail free, and a plane ticket home before the battle.)
And crowns for convoy put into his purse”
(In short, a get out of jail free, and a plane ticket home before the battle.)
“We would not die in that man's company that fears his fellowship to die with us.”
(Ummm, no interpretation needed. Four hundred years from the writing, six hundred from the actual battle, this still resonates. Trust me.)
(Ummm, no interpretation needed. Four hundred years from the writing, six hundred from the actual battle, this still resonates. Trust me.)
(The next bit is where I think Olivier and Branagh get their staging wrong. We don’t know how Shakespeare staged it, but this part should be spoken closely, almost conspiratorially, to the earl and dukes.)
“This day is call'd the feast of Crispian. He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.”
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.”
“He that shall live this day, and see old age, will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, and say "To-morrow is Saint Crispian."
“Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, and say "These wounds I had on Crispin's day."
(Next Shakespeare goes straight to the earl and dukes, hitting them where it matters, in their egos. Remember, he’s got to win them, he can’t just issue an order.)
“Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, but he'll remember, with advantages, what feats he did that day.”
“Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words— Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester—
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.”
Familiar in his mouth as household words— Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester—
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.”
“This story shall the good man teach his son; and Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, from this day to the ending of the world, but we in it shall be rememberèd—“
(Next, I think, he does turn to the men. This sort of thing actually did sometimes happen before battle. But Wm. Shakespeare made moments like this, then and now, immortal.)
(This is a big deal. The cultural and class gap between soldiers and leaders was vast, in England. “Vile” doesn’t mean “evil.” Then it meant “socially low”, like a serf/peon. “Gentle” didn’t mean “soft”, it meant something more like “enable.” Eg “gentleman.”)
“And gentlemen in England now a-bed shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.”
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.”
(Speaks for itself. In modern parlance, “Those soft rich motherfuckers back home will shut their fucking mouths at the bar and think they are less than human when any of you sons o’ bitches who take on the enemy with me today so much as open your mouth.”)
(Human nature doesn’t change much. That’s where my teacher got me wrong. I’m not reliving Shakespeare’s, or Henry’s time. I lived it myself. So did my men.)
Finis
