This month we have remembered two particular battles:
The Battle Of Hastings, 14th October 1066.
The Battle of Trafalgar, 21st October 1805.
and now ‘once more into the breach, dear friends, once more…’
we must remember another, precisely 600 years ago today –
25th October, 1415 The Battle of Agincourt, Northern France.
It is Shakespeare’s great, patriotic play, ‘Henry V’ written in 1598 and consistently performed in England since the 1730s that dramatises the Battle of Agincourt.
The French outnumbered the English, by 5:1, yet victory prevailed in English favour.
“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.”
England itself is personified in the famous St Crispian’s Day speech on the eve of battle as a small island nation that valiantly overcomes powerful enemies.
To brush up on this story, one might brush up one’s Shakespeare and watch the very many interpretations of this history play.
Henry V is believed to be the first play presented to the new Globe Theatre (referenced as the ‘wooden O’ in the play) in Southwark in 1599.
We now have a new Globe in Southwark opened in 1997, a hundred yards from the original site.
Gentlemen please take a bow, Ladies please curtesy…
‘O Kate, nice customs curtesy to great kings…’
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