The St Crispin’s Day speech was immortalized in the scene from Band of Brothers. A German General officer addresses his men at the point of surrender. The actual speech is a part of William Shakespeare‘s history play Henry V, Act IV Scene iii(3) 18–67. On the eve of the Battle of Agincourt, which fell on Saint Crispin’s Day, Henry V urges his men, who were vastly outnumbered by the French, to imagine the glory and immortality that will be theirs if they are victorious. The speech has been famously portrayed by Laurence Olivier to raise British spirits during the Second World War, and by Kenneth Branagh in the 1989 film Henry V; it made famous the phrase “band of brothers“.[1] The play was written around 1600, and several later writers have used parts of it in their own texts.
It has been used in modern times to motive or memorialize significant events. It is here as a memorial to the activities of those men who served their country in the 187th Assault Helicopter Company during the Vietnam War 1967-1972. The reference to the St Crispin’s Day and the name of the battle can be replaced by numerous dates of intense combat during those years.
- The phrase “band of brothers” appears in the 1789 song “Hail, Columbia“, written for the inauguration of George Washington as the first President of the United States.[3]
- During the American Civil War, “The Bonnie Blue Flag“—a 1861 Confederate marching song written by Harry McCarthy—began with the words “We are a band of brothers, and native to the soil”.[28]
- Stephen Ambrose borrowed the phrase “Band of Brothers” for the title of his 1992 book on E Company of the 101st Airborne during World War II; it was later adapted into the 2001 miniseries Band of Brothers. In the closing scene of the series, Carwood Lipton quotes from Shakespeare’s speech.[3]
- According to Mark Bowden’s book, Black Hawk Down, chronicling the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, general William F. Garrison quoted the speech during a memorial service for the men killed in the battle.[7]
- On January 13, 2024, American football coach Jim Harbaugh recited most of the speech at a rally to celebrate the 2023 Michigan Wolverines football team‘s national championship. He replaced the names of Harry the King, Bedford, Exeter, Warwick, Talbot, Salisbury, and Gloucester with key players during Michigan’s championship season: J. J. McCarthy, Blake Corum, Mike Sainristil, Trevor Keegan, Zak Zinter, Kris Jenkins, and Michael Barrett.[12][13]
This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
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 Crispin’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 remember’d.
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 remember’d;
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 accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.