Bard Words (1)

The blog returns! And with it a new series begins. I have always had a great love for Shakespeare and so I thought that I would feature some of his most memorable speeches performed by a variety of great actors, to see if we cannot discern something new from his words.

Upon The King (Henry V)

It seemed appropriate to begin with Shakespeare’s musings on Kingship which appear in that most English of plays Henry V. It is the night before the Battle of Agincourt. The tired remnants of the English army whom Henry describes as “Even as men wrecked upon a sand, that look to be washed off the next tide.” find themselves within hearing distance of the French camp as both forces prepare for the coming battle. King Henry talks briefly with his brothers, Gloucester and Clarence, and with old Sir Thomas Erpingham. He asks to borrow Erpingham’s dirty cloak, then sends these advisors off to confer with the other noblemen in his royal tent, claiming that he wants to be alone for a while. Wrapped anonymously in the borrowed cloak, Henry sits by the common campfire, talking with whoever wanders by. He is pretending to be an ordinary soldier, and none of the men recognizes him as the king.

When he is finally alone, Henry muses to himself. He laments the lonely isolation of power, which is combined with the need to be eternally vigilant. The only consolation Henry can see in being king is the elaborate ceremony and costuming that accompanies the position. Yet he contends that this ceremony is empty and that he would rather be a slave, who is at least able to rest easy and not worry about the safety of his country. It is nearly dawn and almost time for the battle. Henry, still alone, prays to God to strengthen the hearts of his soldiers. He also entreats God not to punish him for the bloody manner by which his own father took the English crown, to Henry’s shame and regret.

I have chosen to feature three versions of the speech. The first performed by Laurence Olivier. The movie was filmed in war-torn Britain, and, because of the frequent air raids in England, Olivier shot the battle scenes in Ireland. The film was released just months after the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944, nicely paralleling the 15th-century invasion of Normandy depicted on the screen. The second is taken from Kenneth Branagh’s screen version from 1989. In this gritty screen adaptation of Shakespeare’s play about the heroic and ruthless king, Henry V of England determines to lay claim to the kingdom of France. Henry’s self-doubt and the diminished morale of his army stand in the way of a victory that would unite the two countries and provide Henry with a queen.

Finally, there is Samuel West, performing the speech, with the Houses of Parliament in the background, from the Shakespeare Solos series which was sponsored by the Guardian in 2016. Leading actors perform some of Shakespeare’s greatest speeches in a video series to mark the 400th anniversary of the playwright’s death.

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