Friday, February 21, 2014

Cannon Fodder

Sir John Falstaff Reviews His Ragged Regiment (1859) by the English artist Sir John Gilbert (1817–1897). Falstaff in front of his infamous "shadows", non-existent or disabled soldiers for whom the commanding officer receives pay. Recruiting is here a business with the only purpose to make money. In a very modern way Falstaff refers to his men: "Now, now: they’re good enough to die. Cannon fodder, cannon fodder—they’ll fill a mass grave as well as better men would."

2 comments:

  1. I hope Sir John Gilbert is being critical in his analysis. Sir John Falstaff reviewing his ragged regiment, if there really was such a regiment in existence, sounds truly awful. Even by the standards of the early Victorian years.

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  2. But the Victorian years were way ahead then. Falstaff is about the Hundred Years' War, or in this case what Shakespeare thought about it.

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