My wish

Unfortunately I came up with this idea at the 11th hour, but it’s an awesome idea since it combines both my historical interest and my literary love, not to mention rhetoric. (It got rejected, so I’ll just analyze it on here!) The speech itself, the St. Crispin’s day speech, was written by William Shakespeare for his play, Henry V. The speech takes place the night before the battle of Agincourt, one of the most profound victories ever accomplished by an army, and it ranks up there with Crecy and Poitiers among the most significant English victories during the Hundred Year’s war. The battle takes place after an extended forced march/retreat through French territory. The English army, under King Henry V, is trapped by a much larger French force, and they decide to fight a defensive battle. Most of the troops fear the coming battle against a larger, better equipped and supplied French force of noblemen. The British army consists mostly of the British longbow-men, commoners. Many among the army contemplate desertion during the night, and most of the nobles close to the king doubt that their force will be capable to succeed in the coming battle. The speech itself is addressed to both the common man and the nobleman. It equates the commoner with the king, but it also confronts the fears of the nobles. While this speech is written by Shakespeare, and thus it has some other influences in it too, it still presents the basic issues felt by the army at the time. It equates the king to the common man, and it gives them the idea that their nobility will fight with them, not above them. The glory to be gained in this battle will be talked of for generations to come, so they will not want to desert, they will want to win to make fame and fortune. The speech, while in the context of a play, not history, still has the elements of a historical speech simply due to the content and presentational style. Even though Shakespeare wrote this oration during the 1600s, he wrote it in a way that the populace could picture Henry speaking to his forces. He wrote it as a king should present to his troops. The speech itself can be used almost throughout time for situations when a small band fights against a larger enemy (as it is used in the film series “Band of Brothers.”)