Forty years ago, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was, for a brief period of time, the Commander-in-Chief of all branches of the U.S. military. In a collection of literatery works assembled by Caroline Kennedy, one can get a keener insight into what that title meant to President Kennedy.
One of Kennedy’s favorite literary passages was something written by William Shakespeare. It is in the play Henry V. In Henry V’s Crispin’s Day Speech, the King talks about the honor of risking one’s life for one’s country.
Here is that passage:
“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,’Tomorrow 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 Talbor, 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 shall be remembered, 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.
