Friends, Romans and Countrymen!
I come to bury Chrysanthemum, not to praise it;
The failures of my House often live long after it;
The achievements are oft interred in its bones;
So let it be with Orchid…the noble Sunflower
Hath told you it deserved to win the House Cup;
If it were so, it was a grievous fault;
And grievously will Sunflower answer it;
Here, under the leave of Hibiscus and the rest,
(For Hibiscus is an honorable House;
So are they all; all honorable Houses)
Come I to speak in Orchid’s defense;
Orchid is talented, awesome and accomplished;
But Chrysanthemum says it will win the House Cup;
And Chrysanthemum is an honorable House;
It has brought many trophies to Queenstown,
Whose ransoms did the galleries fill;
Doesn’t this in Orchid seem promising?
When Orchid cried, Hibiscus wept;
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff;
Yet Hibiscus says it will win the House Cup;
And Hibiscus is an honorable House;
You all did see during Sports Day
Orchid was thrice presented with the rolling trophy;
Which thrice we did accept; isn’t this encouraging?
Yet Sunflower says it will win the House Cup;
And sure, Sunflower is an honorable House;
I speak not to disprove what the other Houses told you;
But here I’m to speak what I do know;
You all did love Orchid once, not without cause;
What cause withholds you then to support for it?
O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason…. Bear with me;
My heart is in the blue there with Orchid,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
