Скачать или смотреть Once more unto the breach, dear friends - Shakespeare - Henry V - Gielgud - 78 rpm

Here's the late great Sir John Gielgud reciting from Shakespeare's Henry V "Once more unto the breach, dear friends " from a lovely 78 rpm shellac record circa 1932.

Henry V is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1599. It tells the story of King Henry V of England, focusing on events immediately before and after the Battle of Agincourt (1415) during the Hundred Years' War. In the First Quarto text, it was entitled The Cronicle History of Henry the fift,[1]:p.6 which became The Life of Henry the Fifth in the First Folio text.

The play is the final part of a tetralogy, preceded by Richard II, Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2. The original audiences would thus have already been familiar with the title character, who was depicted in the Henry IV plays as a wild, undisciplined lad known as "Prince Harry" and by Falstaff as "Hal". In Henry V, the young prince has become a mature man and embarks on a successful conquest of France.

Before the Battle of Agincourt, victory looks uncertain, and the young king's heroic character emerges in his decision to wander around the English camp at night, in disguise, so as to comfort his soldiers and determine what they really think of him. He agonizes about the moral burden of being king, noting that a king is only a man. Before the battle, Henry rallies his troops with the famous St Crispin's Day Speech (Act IV Scene iii 18-67), referring to "we few, we happy few, we band of brothers".