
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jso-SBtfMXg
Henrietta V, Act IV, Scene III
Saint Anna’s Day
Fifteenth Anniversary Edition. In loving memory of those who have passed on. I have left the original names in the piece intact, although I'm positive you can remember many more. And feel free, please, to see yourself in this piece along with recalling those in the In Memoriam Section here.
Prelude to the battle, not of Agincourt, but against conflict and disease and sadness and despair, Henrietta rouses the troops to hope and encouragement!
(With apologies to William Shakespeare, et al.*)
O that we now had here but ten thousand of those men in England that do no work to-day!
What's she that wishes so?
My cousin Liz? 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 any man.
Mio Dio, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear
awkward as that might appear;
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 any man .
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As any man methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Tanya, 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;
As if that were a surprise.
This day is call'd the feast of Anna
She that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse her at the name of Anna
She that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast her neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Anna.'
Then will she strip her gorgeous silk blouse and show her scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Anna's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But she'll remember, with advantages,
What feats she did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in her mouth as household words-
Erin, Penny and Edeyn,
Melanie and Lisa, Susan and Sarah and Kelly-
Sephrena, Heather, Joanne, all of you dear women!
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good woman teach her daughter;
And Anna 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 sisters;
For she to-day that sheds her blood with me;
whether physical or emotional;
Shall be my sister; be she ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle her condition
as if that were necessary, come on, girls;
And Good Ladies around the world now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their womanhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Anna's day.
*Saint Anna is the Patron Saint of Women with Breast Cancer, and likely more,
In loving memory of Marjorie, Alice, Trudy, and Josephine
Music excerpt from the motion picture
Henry V (1989)
composed by Patrick Doyle
Comments
One of my favorites
In fact, I read the original aloud every St. Crispin's. Or declaim the part I know by heart . . . .
— Emma
Sheer Coincidence
Today my son gave back to me a volume of "The Complete Works Of Shakespeare" (reprinted 1987) which I had given him many years ago, and confessed that he had never opened it...the Philistine! Well, horses and water and all that. You can but try.
Anyway, it gave me the chance to review your translation of Harry's speech and you're right on the money, although I am delighted to appear in the transliteration, in glorious company.
It's such a pity that women didn't get their due in many of his works, but then they still don't in our enlightened days. And, we, the transgendered, even less so.
But thank you for this, dear Andrea . I'll paraphrase Dallas..."Here we stand".
I beg to differ!
I mean, sure, Jo, some of his works are shit for women. But the Bard gave us wise Portia, fiercely loyal Cordelia, ambitious Lady MacBeth, tragic Desdemona, innocent Juliette, mad, prophetic Margaret, and -- my personal favorite -- witty, irreverent, Beatrice. Compared to his contemporaries -- hell, compared to men writing in almost any age -- Shakespeare penned female characters with depth and purpose.
— Emma
Yes, But
He also gave us Katherina in 'The Taming Of The Shrew'.
We few
we feeling somewhat adequate few... We band of sisters...
Love, Andrea Lena
We Happy Few
We may be few but we're never inadequate. Just look at the talent that we have on this site.
I honestly think Katherina is a feminist..
You really can read the ending of "Shrew" as her "playing" Petrucio. And you could argue, Bianca is the real star of "Shrew".
Can I add Rosalind into the list of great heroines?
"Lately it occurs to me..
what a long strange trip its been."