Agincourt
Bernard Cornwell of Sharpe’s Rifles fame* tackles it. Jay Fitzgerald of Hubblog fame got the Herald’s review copy of Cornwell’s latest, Agincourt. Awaiting review. Meanwhile, here’s Henry V, via Shakespeare:
Enter the KING
WESTMORELAND: O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day!KING: My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark’d to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour
God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from
God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man’s company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
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 ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian.’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispian’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 rememb’red.
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 remembered-
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 accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
* More from Cornwell, including the Saxon, Arthur and Sharpe series.
Bernard Cornwell is one of today’s most prolific and popular authors of historic fiction, selling more than 10 million copies of his action-packed and acclaimed novels.
Some critics have even compared Cornwell’s books to those of the late Patrick O’Brian, whose swashbuckling tales about Napoleonic- era sea wars was recently turned into a movie, “Master and Commander” starring Russell Crowe.
But the only problem - or partial blessing, if you listen to Cornwell - is that he is not that well known in his adopted country.
“I guess you can say there are advantages to anonymity,” said Cornwell, a native of England who’s now an American citizen living on Cape Cod. “You can focus more on the writing.”
But there are increasing signs that Cornwell, the longtime best- selling author in Britain of the Sharpe series and other historic fiction novels, is about to make it big in America. His publisher, Harper Collins, is going all out to spread the word.
Last spring, Cornwell, 59, released the 20th book in his Sharpe series, “Sharpe’s Havoc” continuing the saga about the hard-bitten English soldier Richard Sharpe, a Dirty Harry-like anti-hero serving in the British army during the Napoleonic Wars.
Last month, Cornwell released his 39th novel, “Heretic” the third in a series about an English archer’s quest for the Holy Grail in 14th century Europe. And the books keep rolling out of Cornwell’s home office in Chatham, where he lives with his wife.
“I always wanted to be a writer,” said Cornwell, a former journalist with the British Broadcasting Corporation and an avid reader of the Horatio Hornblower books when he was young. “But I never thought I’d (write a novel). . . . I didn’t think I had the discipline.”
His second career as a novelist was forced upon him when his application for a U.S. work visa was rejected in the late 1970s, soon after he met his future wife, Judy, an American who was visiting Northern Ireland. The two later moved to the United States - Cornwell on a tourist visa.
Without a green card that could have landed him a job at a television network, Cornwell had no choice: He started writing the first of his Sharpe novels. Cornwell said he deliberately picked a land-based army hero because too many authors - including O’Brian - were chasing the same seafaring Horatio Hornblower angle.
Cornwell has been described as “Britain’s greatest storyteller,” but he has written a number of novels based in America, including “Redcoat” about the British army’s military campaigns during the American Revolution.
Of local interest, Cornwell has also published “The Starbuck Chronicles” a series about a “Massachusetts lad who joins the Confederacy and knows he’s fighting on the wrong side,” Cornwell said.
Fifteen years ago, Cornwell and his wife moved to Cape Cod, where they previously had visited and whose beauty struck Cornwell as “being as close to heaven on earth as you can get.”
One might say Cornwell is a product of history - with a love of history in his blood. A “war baby” son of a Canadian airman and a mother in Britain’s Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, Cornwell was put up for adoption after his birth in London in 1944.
He recently tracked down and met his real parents, now in their 80s. His father is a retired businessman in Canada and his mother still lives in England. He recently visited her,-and on her book shelves were lots of historic fiction novels.
“I guess you can say one of her genes definitely rubbed off on me,” Cornwell said.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:20 am on Tuesday, December 30, 2008
One Response to “Agincourt”
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December 30th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Cornwell is one of my favorite writers. His stories are always interesting, well researched and fun to read.