St.
Crispin's Day Speech
- What's
he that wishes so?
- My cousin Westmoreland? No, my
fair cousin.
- If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
- To
do our country loss; and if to live,
- The fewer men,
the greater share of honour.
- 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;
- 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.
- No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from
England.
- God's peace! I would not lose so great an
honour
- As one man more, methinks, would share from
me
- For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one
more!
- Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my
host,
- That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
- Let
him depart. His passport shall be made,
- And crowns
for convoy put into his purse.
- We would not die in
that man's company
- That fears his fellowship to die
with us.
- 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 named,
- 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
Crispian's day."
- 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.
- 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 remembered,
- We few, we happy few, we band
of brothers.
- 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;
- 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.
Julius
Caesar Act III Scene ii
Mark Antony
Friends,
Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury
Caesar, not to praise him;
The evil that men do lives after
them,
The good is oft interred with their bones,
So
let it be with Caesar ... The noble Brutus
Hath told you
Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And
grievously hath Caesar answered it ...
Here, under leave of
Brutus and the rest,
(For Brutus is an honourable man;
So
are they all; all honourable men)
Come I to speak in
Caesar's funeral ...
He was my friend, faithful and just to
me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus
is an honourable man….
He hath brought many captives home to
Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did
this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have
cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner
stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And
Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the
Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which
he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he
was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I
speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to
speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without
cause:
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O
judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have
lost their reason…. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin
there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.