Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

O, that we now had here

But one ten thousand of these men in England

That do no work to-day!

 

-Westmoreland

King Henry the Fifth               Act IV, Scene iii, Line 16

 

This is the set-up line to Henry’s speech about how glorious it’s going to be to fight in this battle. It’s the speech that includes the line

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

So here’s something to think about, and not just in relation to Will’s work: what about all those set-up lines? I’m talking about lines, like today’s, that no one remembers. Today’s is a really good example. Henry needed someone to complain about how great the odds against them were in order for him to go into his speech of how famous they’re all going to be for fighting against those odds. And he goes on about it quite a bit.

I guess some set-up lines are famous in themselves, though I can’t think of any right now. And a lot of famous lines and speeches don’t really require any set-up line. Like I think we need a bigger boat. Remember when Chief Brody says that in Jaws? There’s nobody else there right then. But he sees the shark surface, and how big it is, and he gives that line in response to that, not to anyone’s comment. Or maybe we can consider that the shark gave a sort of silent set-up line? Anyway, in Henry’s case he kind of needed the set-up line. Either way, the set-up line is underrated. At least in my opinion it is.

 

Here you go. This is the crumbling wall of a medieval town in France. Okay, it's not Agincourt where Henry gave his famous speech after that brilliant set-up line by Westmoreland, but it's the best I could do.