Emphasis Preaching Journal

There is an incredible intimacy in shared suffering. One of the most powerful scenes in English literature is the Saint Crispin's Day speech delivered by Henry before the Battle of Agincourt in Shake-speare's Henry V. Though Shakespeare wrote almost 200 years after the battle itself (1415), he possessed a keen sense of the English appreciation for the event. Henry had already led his soldiers across northwestern France capturing Calais and several other cities claimed by the English. Though the French respected the English longbows because of the lessons learned at Crecy (1347) and Poiters (1356), it seemed their numbers were sufficient to ensure a French victory once the battle was met. Henry's troops were much weakened by both constant campaigning and dysentery. Thus weakened and having a serious disadvantage in numbers, it seemed the English were doomed to defeat. The context for Henry's speech as contrived by Shakespeare is the assumption of imminent defeat. It is in that context that Henry utters:

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today 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.

History records that the improbable victory was won at a cost of hundreds of English lives versus thousands of French casualties and therefore the celebration in drama by Shakespeare.