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Remember, remember ...


DaSchiz

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Remember, remember! 

   The fifth of November, 

   The Gunpowder treason and plot; 

   I know of no reason 

   Why the Gunpowder treason 

   Should ever be forgot!

 

   Guy Fawkes and his companions 

   Did the scheme contrive, 

   To blow the King and Parliament 

   All up alive. 

   Threescore barrels, laid below, 

   To prove old England's overthrow. 

   

But, by God's providence, him they catch, 

   With a dark lantern, lighting a match! 

   A stick and a stake 

   For King James's sake! 

   If you won't give me one, 

   I'll take two, 

   The better for me, 

   And the worse for you. 

   

A rope, a rope, to hang the Pope, 

   A penn'orth of cheese to choke him, 

   A pint of beer to wash it down, 

   And a jolly good fire to burn him. 

   

Holloa, boys! holloa, boys! make the bells ring! 

   Holloa, boys! holloa boys! God save the King! 

   Hip, hip, hooor-r-r-ray!

 

The point of V for Vendetta, and the connection to real world groups the poem is associated with all come back to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 - which in a nutshell was the result of a Government trying to forcibly impose restrictions upon the populace on the right to maintain religious beliefs (it was against the law to be Catholic, literally). The foiling of the Gunpowder Plot on November 5 was then celebrated as a national holiday, by law, where citizens were expected to burn effigies of the pope, Guy Fawkes and other Papists. It would later turn into Royalists vs Parlimentarians (with Charles I's death starting the Intereggnum) with the day becoming pro-Parlimentarian (Purist) as the Royalists were seen as Catholic puppets.

 

Religious background aside - V for Vendetta, and certain real world groups, have essentially reclaimed the date, and the poem, as a reminder to corrupt or non-democratic governments seeking to impose the will of the few upon the many, that you cannot kill an idea - the people are always watching, and will take matters into their own hands to change the political order, as history often shows.

 

As you were.

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