The St Crispin's Day speech is a part of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's history play ''

Henry V Henry V may refer to: People * Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026) * Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125) * Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161) * Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (c. 1173–1227) * Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (1 ...

'', Act IV Scene iii(3) 18–67. On the eve of the Battle of Agincourt, which fell on

Saint Crispin's Day Saint Crispin's Day, or the Feast of Saint Crispin, falls on 25 October and is the feast day of the Christian saints Crispin and Crispinian, twins who were martyred c. 286. They are both the patron saints of cobblers, leather workers, tanners, ...

, Henry V urges his men, who were vastly outnumbered by the French, to imagine the glory and immortality that will be theirs if they are victorious. The speech has been famously portrayed by Laurence Olivier to raise British spirits during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, and by

Kenneth Branagh Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh (; born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker. Branagh trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and has served as its president since 2015. He has won an Academy Award, four BAFTAs (plus ...

in the 1989 film ''

''; it made famous the phrase "band of brothers". The play was written around 1600, and several later writers have used parts of it in their own texts.

The speech

Cultural influence

Use and quotation

*During the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, just prior to the Battle of the Nile,

Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte (29 September 1758 – 21 October 1805) was a British flag officer in the Royal Navy. His inspirational leadership, grasp of strategy, and unconventional tactics brought abo ...

, then Rear Admiral of the Blue, referred to his

captains Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

as his " band of brothers". *

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

' magazine '' Household Words'' (1850-1851) took its name from the speech. *During the

First Barbary War The First Barbary War (1801–1805), also known as the Tripolitan War and the Barbary Coast War, was a conflict during the Barbary Wars, in which the United States and Sweden fought against Tripolitania. Tripolitania had declared war against Sw ...

, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, Jr. proclaimed "the fewer men, the greater share of honor," before leading a raiding party to destroy the . *During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Laurence Olivier delivered the speech during a radio programme to boost British morale and

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

found him so inspiring that he asked Olivier to produce the Shakespeare play as a film. Olivier's adaptation appeared in 1944. It is said that the radio programme inspired Churchill's famous Never was so much owed by so many to so few speech made in 1940 during the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

. *The title of British politician

Duff Cooper Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, (22 February 1890 – 1 January 1954), known as Duff Cooper, was a British Conservative Party politician and diplomat who was also a military and political historian. First elected to Parliament in 19 ...

's autobiography '' Old Men Forget'' (1953) is taken from the speech. *During the legal battle for the U.S. presidential election of 2000, regarding the Florida vote recount, members of the Florida legal team for

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

, the eventual legal victor, joined arms and recited the speech during a break in preparation, to motivate themselves. *On the day of the result of the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, as the vote to leave became clear, activist and MEP Daniel Hannan is reported to have delivered an edited version of the speech from a table, replacing the names Bedford, Exeter, Warwick and Talbot with other prominent

Vote Leave Vote Leave was a campaigning organisation that supported a "Leave" vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. On 13 April 2016 it was designated by the Electoral Commission as the official campaign in favour of leav ...

activists.

Film, television, music and literature

Parts and/or versions of the speech appear in films such as ''

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance ''The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'' () is a 1962 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and James Stewart. The screenplay by James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck was adapted from a 1953 short story written by ...

'' (1962), '' Tombstone'' (1993), ''

Renaissance Man A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...

'' (1994), ''Tea With Mussolini'' (1999),

Mystery Men ''Mystery Men'' is a 1999 American superhero comedy film directed by Kinka Usher (in his feature-length directorial debut) and written by Neil Cuthbert, loosely based on Bob Burden's '' Flaming Carrot Comics'', and starring Ben Stiller, Hank Azar ...

(1999), ''

This Is England ''This Is England'' is a 2006 British drama film written and directed by Shane Meadows. The story centres on young skinheads in England in 1983. The film illustrates how their subculture, which has its roots in 1960s West Indies culture, espec ...

'' (2006), Anonymous (2011), and ''

Their Finest ''Their Finest'' is a 2016 British war comedy-drama film, directed by Lone Scherfig, written by Gaby Chiappe, and based on the 2009 novel ''Their Finest Hour and a Half'' by Lissa Evans. The film stars Gemma Arterton, Sam Claflin, Bill Nighy, ...

'' (2017). It has also been used in television series such as ''

Rough Riders The Rough Riders was a nickname given to the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, one of three such regiments raised in 1898 for the Spanish–American War and the only one to see combat. The United States Army was small, understaffed, and di ...

'' (1997), '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer'', ''

The Black Adder ''The Black Adder'' is the first series of the BBC sitcom ''Blackadder'', written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson, directed by Martin Shardlow and produced by John Lloyd. The series was originally aired on BBC 1 from 15 June 1983 to 20 ...

'' and '' Doctor Who''. *The phrase "band of brothers" appears in the 1789 song "

Hail, Columbia "Hail, Columbia" is an American patriotic song and ceremonial entrance march of the vice president of the United States. It was originally considered to be one of the unofficial national anthems of the United States until 1931, when "The St ...

", written for the inauguration of

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

as the first

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

. * During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, "

The Bonnie Blue Flag "The Bonnie Blue Flag", also known as "We Are a Band of Brothers", is an 1861 marching song associated with the Confederate States of America. The words were written by the entertainer Harry McCarthy, with the melody taken from the song " The Iri ...

"—a 1861

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

marching song A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's ...

written by

Harry McCarthy Harry McCarthy (1834–1888), also known as Harry Macarthy, was a songwriter from Ireland, where he became a variety entertainer and comedian in the mid 19th century. Career In 1861 he wrote the song "The Bonnie Blue Flag," about the unoffi ...

—began with the words "We are a band of brothers, and native to the soil". *

Stephen Ambrose Stephen Edward Ambrose (January 10, 1936 – October 13, 2002) was an American historian, most noted for his biographies of U.S. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. He was a longtime professor of history at the University of New O ...

borrowed the phrase "Band of Brothers" for the title of his 1992 book on E Company of the

101st Airborne The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) ("Screaming Eagles") is a light infantry division of the United States Army that specializes in air assault operations. It can plan, coordinate, and execute multiple battalion-size air assault operati ...

during World War II; it was later adapted into the 2001 miniseries '' Band of Brothers''. In the closing scene of the series,

Carwood Lipton First Lieutenant Clifford Carwood Lipton (30 January 1920 – 16 December 2001) was a commissioned officer with Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, during World War II. On the battlefields of Europe, ...

quotes from Shakespeare's speech. * The 2016 videogame ''

We Happy Few ''We Happy Few'' is an action-adventure survival horror video game developed by Compulsion Games and published by Gearbox Publishing. In 2016, an early access version was released for Microsoft Windows, with the full game seeing wide release ...

'' takes its name from the speech. *A part of the speech is quoted in the 2017 novel '' The Ministry of Utmost Happiness'' by

Arundhati Roy Suzanna Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian author best known for her novel ''The God of Small Things'' (1997), which won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the best-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author. S ...

as one of the character's mother's favourite passage from Shakespeare which is recited (silently) at her second funeral.

References

Citations

General and cited references

* * *

External links

* {{Wikisource inline, The Life of Henry the Fifth#SCENE III. The English camp., ''The Life of Henry the Fifth'', single=true 16th-century speeches Cultural depictions of Henry V of England Fiction set in the 15th century France in fiction Hundred Years' War in fiction Shakespearean histories