Commencement Address

“Here is what John Bates, the voice of the common man, has to say [in Shakespeare’s Henry V]: ‘Be friends, you English fools, be friends: we have / French quarrels enow….’ Forget for a second the historical specificity, the impending battle between the English and the French. What Bates the common soldier here counsels is that parties who disagree on political or social or other matters should come to agreement, resolving their internal difficulties in order to face a larger threat from without.” [Transcript]