St. Friskin's Day

Arthur Krock, Washington bureau chief for the New York Times, ordinarily does not attempt lighthearted satire, much less write in iambic pentameter. But last week Krock tried both. Occasion: such Taft tactics as the attempt of his supporters to bar Texas delegates for Eisenhower on grounds they are really Democrats and "to discourage Democrats who are ready for political conversion." Krock prepared for keynoter MacArthur "In Metrical Praise of a Steamroller," a parody of Henry V's speech to his outnumbered followers (Shakespeare's Henry V, Act IV) before their victory at Agincourt on St. Crispin's Day in 1415:

No, delegates. If we are marked to lose

We are enough to do our party loss.

Winning, then let its win without admixture

Without political miscegenation.

The fewer we, then we the more exclusive.

I pray thee, tempt no Democrats to join us . . .

Rather, proclaim throughout our party's ranks

That him who could get Democratic votes,

Let him depart. See to it, O Credentials!

Give him the bum's rush, sans expenses.

You that outlive this day and come safe home

Will stand a-tiptoe when this day is named

Which I declare to be St. Friskin's Day

In honor of the thing we plan to do.

That merely is to frisk the Eisenhowers

For anything they have we need to win . . .

Old men forget, but this he won't forget;

And he'll remember with advantages

The doings of this day. Then shall our names

Come proudly from his mouth as household words--

Ingalls the Dave, Zweifel and Hallanan,

Coleman the Tom and Carroll Reece and ME--

Be in the glorious tale freshly remembered . . .

And this St. Friskin's Day shall ne'er go by

From this hour to the ending of the world

But we in it shall be remembered,

We few, we exclusive few, we band of brothers . . .

And frighted neutrals hiding under beds

Shall mourn in vain the fact they were not here;

And silence keep while one of us may speak

Who lost another national election

For deeds we did on this St. Friskin's Day.

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