ましょう/ や /エスプリに

Hi, I have a few questions I'd like to ask.

1. 観衆の気分ひとつで、「死ね」とも命じられるし、「許せ」と も言われる。
I'm very confused by 観衆の気分ひとつで. They could be commanded based on their feelings? Shouldn't it be based on the feelings of the person who is doing the commanding? Or でも instead of で?

2. 兵馬強悍、いずれの国にも勝りましょう。
a) Is 勝りましょう the contraction of 勝りますでしょう?
b) What does 悍 mean in 兵馬強悍?

3. ファッションや話題選び、ダンス、お茶、ちょうとしたエスプリに、絵画や音楽に関して の薀蓄。
a) A translation check, to make sure I understand the highlighted area correctly. "She was greatly knowledgable in fashion, and topics of her choosing such as dance, ...."
b) Does ちょうとしたエスプリに mean she wanted to learn about(was interested) painting/music than she did dance, etc.?

4. 速くを見る振りをする
Does this mean "to pretend to seem to be in a hurry to others"?

Thanks.

1)
The person who is doing the commanding changes his/her command depending on the feelings of the spectators.

2) a)
勝りましょう is a bit classical way of saying 勝るでしょう. ましょう is from "ませ(未然形 "imperfective form" of ます) + う(an auxiliary verb for presumption)".

b)
A kanji dictionary 新字源 says it means "ferocious, violent, brave, courageous".

3)
ちょっとしたエスプリ？

ファッション, 話題選び, ダンス, お茶, ちょっとしたエスプリ, 絵画や音楽に関しての薀蓄 are all the examples.

4)
遠くを見る？

1 = I'm guessing this is in the context of a public execution.. have you ever seen a film about gladiators? Like gladiator? I'm guessing that's the setting they are going for. If the crowd likes you, you live, if it doesn't, you die.

2=
a.
b 悍馬 means unruly horse, other combinations usually end up meaning ferocious for the most part. So I'm guessing it means the soldiers and horses are strong and fierce?

3 a. . I am uncertain, but I think topic picking is listed as one of the skills..
b. that's how I interpret it too

4. I would say that it's a "pretend take a speedy look" because pretending to be in a hurry would be "急いでいる振り" if it's 遠くを見る振り like tori suggested it would make more sense. Which means (obviously) staring into the distance.. like on a classic boy band cover.

sorry that I couldn't be of more help, hopefully at least I managed to clear up nr. 1 for you.

Thanks Toritoribe! And you too, raguna!

And I have seen such a movie. I actually considered it too, but felt I was thinking too much into it. Sometimes I can be a bit slow on the uptake of these implied subject/topics in some of these sentences though.

4) Oops. That was embarrassing. Must be ゲシュタルト崩壊.

3) I'm still bit confused about this one so I'd like to clarify on this. If as you say, all the listed ones are examples and ちょっとしたエスプリ counts as a piece of knowledge, why use "に" then? I can't think of it doing anything except turning the phrase into one that modifies 絵画や音楽.

に is also used to list things, as same as と or や, so it can be rephrased with ファッションに話題選び、ダンス、お茶、ちょっとしたエスプリや、絵画や音楽に関しての薀蓄. (When と is used after エスプリ, it has a nuance that the list is complete.)

［並助］並列・列挙・添加・取り合わせを表す。「バター―チーズ―牛乳」「月―むら雲、花―嵐」
「有識(いうそく)―公事(くじ)のかた、人の鏡ならんこそいみじかるべけれ」〈徒然・一〉

Click to expand...

に［格助接助終助並助］の意味 - 国語辞書 - goo辞書

Ah, I get it now. So to sum it up, in sentences that follows the structure "Aや、B、C、Dと...", や is identical to use of に in that it plays the role of categorization(and in the example above, sub-categorization). That is, B,C,D can all be grouped under A. Is this correct?

Seems this type of structure can also be used to rank things. Thanks for the helpful explanation!

Uh, not really. All the examples are in the same group whether や or に or と. When と is used at the end of the examples, it shows that the list contains all the examples.
に is hardly used when examples are only two. For instance, ダンスにお茶 can have a nunce that dance has something to do with tea, not just "dance and tea", as in 猫に小判, 暖簾に腕押し.