Enter the king.

[Cybrludite]

WESTMORELAND. O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day!

KING. What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? 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 not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
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 not a man from England.
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, 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.
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
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 remembered-
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.

[arctictom]

The bard speaks , Henry V, IIRC.

[Cybrludite]

Beat my blog post by 90 minutes (I post in local time zone)

Actually, your posts on the subject are why I've got a reminder of the day set in my phone's calendar.

[HTRN]

My favorite reading of this.

[Highspeed]

I think the Olivier version suffers from being read by Olivier
I don't mean that quite how it might sound - it's just that there was only one way to read Shakespeare in those days - "I, AM AN ACTOR " style.

Branagh's version ( despite him being a luvvie as well ) is the definitive IMO. He's done a lot to make Shakespeare entertaining and accessible over the years.

[Steamforger]

It's fitting that today is also the day that the men of Taffy 3 decided they'd run enough, heaved to and got Adm. Kurita's attention in a very big way. Truly, the Navy's finest hour (IMHO)

[Rod]

It's fitting that today is also the day that the men of Taffy 3 decided they'd run enough, heaved to and got Adm. Kurita's attention in a very big way. Truly, the Navy's finest hour (IMHO)

Little known battle except to naval historians. Reading the Wikipedia entry gave me the shivers. DAMN!

[MiddleAgedKen]

TURKEY TROTS TO WATER WHERE IS REPEAT WHERE IS TASK FORCE 34 THE WHOLE WORLD WONDERS

[randy]

It's fitting that today is also the day that the men of Taffy 3 decided they'd run enough, heaved to and got Adm. Kurita's attention in a very big way. Truly, the Navy's finest hour (IMHO)

Roger That.

It always seems to get a little dusty when I consider the run the destroyers made, knowing what they were going up against. Which invokes yet another famous engagement from this date:

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
  Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell

[blackeagle603]

There's a memorial at Ft Rosecrans Nat Cemetery on Pt Loma. It's been 4 or 5 years since I went to Memorial Day services there with the S&H and a couple other high school boys in tow (2 of them serving now). We stopped to listen to some Taffy 3 vets who were there (in uniform) as docents telling their stories. In addition to telling about the big picture, they'd point out names on the monument and tell the personal stories of the ones they had known. One of them had ben a young SWO at the time, another was a GM2 or GM3 manning a 5"...

Hairy stuff, heat, hot metal, injuries, loss of mates, improvising, stepping in to other roles for fallen mates, doing DC while still fighting the ship, the cheers and blood oaths of the crew as they heard the word passed they were going back around to attack straight in.