Henry V

In Kenneth Branagh’s film of Henry V, after the Battle of Agincourt, the king orders his surviving men to sing “Non Nobis” and “Te Deum.” Only the former is actually dramatized, with an arrangement by Patrick Doyle. Here is a snippet:

[podloveaudio mp4=”http://www.forummagistrorum.com/wpb/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/NonNobisDomine1.m4a”]

Transcription (the same lyrics are repeated for the duration of the song):

Non nobis, Domine, Domine,
Non nobis, Domine,
Sed nomini, sed nomini tuo da gloriam.

Leaving aside the repetition of certain words, this is actually a straightforward example of dare taking a direct and an indirect object. While the personal pronouns and possessive adjectives may make it a bit hard for students first experiencing indirect objects, it would be a nice listening exercise for students learning or reviewing personal and possessive pronouns. Also note that this is almost certainly an example of non negating just the following word, nobis, in contrast to nomini tuo, not an unusual use of non negating an imperative.

The recording above  is taken from the version of Non Nobis Domine on the album Cinema Choral Classics), which has much clearer pronunciation than in the actual film, where nomini sounds more like nomine. I don’t think there is anything much to be gained by watching the actual scene (esp. if students haven’t seen the rest of the film), but if you really want to, here’s a YouTube clip (with some extra context at the beginning).

Fun fact: the dead boy being carried by Henry was played by Christian Bale, whom students may know from The Dark Knight (Batman) movies.

If any schools still read Henry V in English classes, you can make a Connection (in the 5Cs sense) there.