A Bit of the Bard

One of my favorite passages from Shakespeare:

Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more,
Or close up the wall with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility.
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the actions of the tiger.
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard favor'd rage.
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let it pry through the portage of the head
Like a brass cannon. Let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English,
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war proof!
Fathers that like so many Alexanders
Have in these parts from morn til even fought
And sheath'd their swords for lack of argument.
Dishonor not your mothers. Now attest
That those whom you'd call fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood
And teach them how to war. And you, good yeomen,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture. Let us swear
That you are worth your breeding, which I doubt not,
For there is none of you so mean and base
That hath not noble luster in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot!
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry "God for Harry, England, and St. George!"

-Henry the Fifth, Act III, Scene I