Is this really a death speech or are you yanking my chain? lol 
Humour in death, I like it. Where is this from please?
Despite the religious romanticism you speak or, I really like this one. Thanks!
'Father, into Your Hands I Commend My Spirit" is from the New Testament, Luke 23:46. Jesus Christ is speaking to God the Father.
The words, “It is finished!” in the Tolstoy I quoted are also taken from the New Testament, again spoken by Jesus frm the cross. John 19:30.
“They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist–” were the last words ever spoken by Major Gen. John Sedgwick of the Union Army. The occasion was the battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, in 1864.
I’ve always been partial to the parting words of Cyrano de Bergerac:
“There is one thing that goes with me when tonight I enter my final lodging. A thing unstained, unsullied by the brute broken nails of the world, by death, by doom unfingered. See it there, a white plume over the battle — a diamond in the ash of the ultimate combustion — my panache.”
-P
This was in a book, a historical novel, so I think it counts: “My only regret is that I have but one life to give.” Can someone tell me who said that? It is in the book The Glorious Cause.
What is the answer? I was silent.] In that case, what is the question?
— Gertrude Stein’s last words. From Alice B. Toklas, What Is Remembered
I cheated - it is not literary.
It is the dying words of John Sedgewick, a Civil War general.
Regards,
Shodan
I haven’t read the book, but I’ve heard that Patrick Henry said that, but I think it might have been “… one life to give to my country.” And if we’re being precise, I believe it was quoted as “I regret that …” rather than “My only regret …”
In other words, “I regret that I have but one life to give to my country.” – Patrick Henry
And no, I wasn’t there. 
Nathan Hale, not Patrick Henry.
Uttered upon the occasion of his execution. And it counts in this thread, because Hale was actually paraphrasing a line from a popular play, Addison’s “Cato.”
Obviously my memory for people’s names is kaput. Thanks to you who ‘fixed’ those. :eek:
MizQuirk
Obviously my memory for people’s names is kaput. Thanks to you who ‘fixed’ those. :eek:
MizQuirk
I’ve read that Nathan Hale actually didn’t say that, and was quoted in a British soldier’s journal (not the most objective source, I must admit) as saying “It is every man’s job to serve his Commander-in-Chief” – something to that effect, anyway.
I wish I could quote it from memory, but I never made the effort, simply because just reading the passage is always so heart-wrenching for me*. Perhaps someone with a copy of the book could favor us with a rendering:
Charlotte’s farewell to Wilbur, when she tells him of the life he has ahead of him (thanks to her efforts), when he returns to Zuckerman’s farm.
Charlotte’s Web, by E. B. White.
*In fact, I couldn’t finish typing this post without choking up.
BTW, Opheilia, welcome to the SDMB.
If a “death speech” is someone’s dying words, then this doesn’t qualify because it’s a speech made to someone else who has already died. But it’s the first thing that came to mind when I read the original post: Heathcliff’s charge to Catherine that she haunt him for the rest of his life~
“And I pray one prayer - I repeat it till my tongue stiffens - Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living; you said I killed you - haunt me, then! The murdered do haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts have wandered on earth. Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!”
Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte.
Gives me chills.
Oh, could anyone please post it? It’s been years since I read Charlotte’s Web and saw the cartoon (they made a cartoon out of it, you know).
It’s supposedly what Oscar Wilde said on his death bed.