Henry V - Speech at Agincourt - Eve of Saint Crispin's Day

ON THIS DAY 25 OCTOBER 

 The Battle of Agincourt was one of the greatest English victories in the Hundred Years' War. It took place on 25 October 1415 (Saint Crispin's Day) near Agincourt in northern France. England's unexpected victory against a numerically superior French army boosted English morale and prestige, crippled France, and started a new period of English dominance in the war. The celebrated St Crispin's Day speech is a part of William Shakespeare's play, Henry V, Act IV Scene iii 18–67. An extract follows:

 "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 rememberèd— 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.'

Shakespeare Exhibition to Mark the 400th Anniversary of His Death Held at Windsor Castle

 

From Royal Central

With the 400th anniversary of playwrighter William Shakespeare’s death, Queen Elizabeth is marking the occasion with a display at Windsor Castle.

The event that starts Saturday will display treasures demonstrating the link between her family and Shakespeare, such as a copy of his second folio, annotated by both Charles I and George III.

Other family heirlooms include Queen Mary’s copy of The Merry Wives of Windsor that she was given in 1917 and a Romeo and Juliet drawing by the future Queen Victoria when she was 15-years-old. The picture made in pen, pencil and ink shows the star-crossed lovers embracing as Romeo climbs out of a window.

Titled ‘Shakespeare in the Royal Library’, the exhibition hosts an array of maps, prints, books and works of art demonstrating how monarchs since Elizabeth I have loved Britain’s greatest dramatist.

The annotated copy of the Bard’s second folio, the 1632 collection of his plays, is a highlight of the exhibition. Charles I is said to have read it when imprisoned at Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight for 14 months before his death in 1649.

Charles I wrote the words ‘Dum Spiro Spero’ (While I Breathe, I Hope) on the flyleaf of the book, as well as adding the names of some of Shakespeare’s comedic characters on the contents page.

 

William Sartain’s portrait of playwright William Shakespeare

William Sartain’s portrait of playwright William Shakespeare

Many others owned the book before 1800 when the Royal Library by George III reacquired it. George made a correction on a note in the book that said Sir Thomas Herbert was the King’s Master of the Revels, to that Herbert was, in fact, Groom of the Bedchamber to Charles I.

Queen Victoria and her family took in many of Shakespeare’s plays at Windsor Castle. During one performance Louis Haghe recorded the event in watercolour showing the Queen, Prince Albert and the children watching Macbeth in the Rubens Room (now King’s Drawing Room) on February 4, 1853.

A journal entry from Victoria describes that day as “most interesting, thrilling and heartrending play” and said the performance was “extremely well given”.

Prince Charles is president of the Royal Shakespeare Company and published a selection of his favourite work by Shakespeare in 1995.

Elizabeth Clark, exhibition curator of Royal Collection Trust said: “This exhibition commemorating 400 years since Shakespeare’s death is a wonderful opportunity to show through many of the Royal Library’s greatest treasures the Royal Family’s lasting interest in Shakespeare and his plays.”

 

 

Shakespeare Not Required Reading for Most Literature Grads in US

On this the day on which the greatest writer in the English language was born and died, it is shocking to learn that fewer than 8 percent of the nation's top universities require English majors to take a course focused on the work of William Shakespeare.

It seems hardly possible for any English-speaking person, English major or not, to be truly educated without some familiarity with the sonnets and plays of Shakespeare.  It is truly criminal for colleges and universities to charge outlandish tuition and not require at least one course focused on richest vein of thought and language we possess. 

Parents and students, please shop around and ensure that the college or university you choose requires exposure to the great works of the Western canon, and not indoctrination into a Marxist world-view.

Shakespeare Project Posts All Shakespeare Sonnets to YouTube

It is no doubt providential that William Shakespeare was born and died on April 23, the Feast of Saint George, patron of England.  And what better day could there be to explore some of the work of our language's preeminent poet and playwright?  Those who love the work of William Shakespeare will be delighted to know that all 154 of his sonnets, along with many of the great soliloquies, have been beautifully read and posted to YouTube by Mr. Bertram Selwyn.

Mr. Selwyn began his Shakespeare Project in October 2007 and finished in June 2009.  The Sonnets of William Shakespeare are available on Mr. Selwyn's YouTube Channel.  His readings and recordings are a great work of love and a treasure trove for all English-speaking people.

The sonnets are also available (free) in podcast format through i-tunes.

Shakespeare in the Digital Age

From The Wall Street Journal

By Joel Henning

Great Hall, Folger Shakespeare Library

There are 232 surviving First Folios of the works of William Shakespeare, and the world's largest collection of them—82—is not in London, Oxford or anywhere else in England. The volumes are deep in the bowels of the Folger Shakespeare Library, a building tucked in among the U.S. Capitol, the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress.

"Without these Folios, published in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death, 18 of his plays—including 'Macbeth,' 'Julius Caesar,' 'Twelfth Night,' 'The Tempest' and 'As You Like It'—would have been lost," says Michael Witmore, the Folger's director since July, as we tour the underground stacks. "They originally sold for one British pound, worth around $200 present value," he adds. But the price has gone up in the nearly 400 years since. "In 2001," he says, "a single First Folio sold at Christie's for $6.2 million." I gingerly return the Folio I've been holding to its shelf.

Shakespeare's Original Pronunciation

A very interesting explanation of how many linguistic treasures in the sonnets and plays of Shakespeare have been lost due to changes in pronunciation.  Hat tip to Brits at their Best.

"The Story of English: A Muse of Fire" with Robert MacNeil

This third episode of Robert MacNeil's history of the English language considers the enormous influence of Shakespeare, the "great genius" of the language, as well as that of the King James translation of the Bible. It also examines how the language was brought to the new world by the Elizabethans.

Bard was a Catholic: New book

From CathNews

In a newly published book, American scholar Joseph Pearce concludes that William Shakespeare was a Catholic.

Projo.com reports that academics have increasingly noted links between Shakespeare and the persecuted Catholics of his times.

A new book by Joseph Pearce, The Quest for Shakespeare: The Bard of Avon and the Church of Rome lays out the case that Shakespeare was indeed a believing Catholic who, for the sake of his career and his neck, kept that a secret.

Shakespeare came from Stratford in Warwickshire, a hotbed of Catholic non-conformity. His father John Shakespeare was identified in 1592 as a recusant, meaning a Catholic who refused to attend Protestant church services.

William himself appears on no records attending Protestant services or registering with the Church of England — something he was required by law to do. His mother Mary Arden came from a family of fiercely loyal Catholics. His school teachers included at least two Catholics.

William and Anne Hathaway’s wedding took place not in Stratford but four miles away, at a church presided over by a man identified in 1586 as a Catholic priest.

A bricklayer working on the Shakespeare home in 1757 found a document hidden in the rafters, its wording copied from a pamphlet distributed by Edward Campion, a Catholic priest who was tortured and executed under Queen Elizabeth in 1581. The document seemed to be a promise by John Shakespeare to die in the faith, even if he was unable to obtain last rites from a priest.

Shakespeare’s beloved daughter Susanna was identified as a Catholic recusant in 1606. In his waning years, William, who had rented all his life when away from Stratford, bought a London building that was said to be a hiding place for Catholic priests and a site for illegal masses, and some speculate that Shakespeare bought it to help the cause.

Describing himself as a sceptic before he embarked on serious research, author Pearce says that "I became convinced that Shakespeare was indeed a Catholic ...and that this fact has radical consequences with regard to the study of his works."

Anthony Esolen, a noted professor of Renaissance English at a US College, contends that Mr Pearce’s case is "meticulous, reasonable, and convincing."

It also seems to square with Shakespeare's works, which touch on themes of wisdom through suffering, and of trying to be faithful to one’s beliefs in the face of self-doubt and bitter persecution, he says.