A good smiting is so often accompanied by peril that many otherwise good men consider giving up their right, their opportunity. Still others, as weak as the former, do wish to so greatly swell their numbers that it is scarcely a smiting but rather a coarse, brutish, crushing.
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 brothers, wish not another man to join the cause
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, 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 SMITE in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is called the Day of Sublime SMITING (DOSS for short)
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 DOSS.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is DOSS:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on DOSS last.'
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
Dudley the Mountie, Kansuke and Pepe,
Thor and Littlefinger, Malificent the Elder and Joe Supertone,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And DOSS 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 SMITERS;
For he to-day that sheds enemy's bl00d with me
Shall be a smiter; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in our homelands... now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon the Day of Sublime Smiting.
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