A Busy Day for English History

Today is the feast of St Crispin, named after the Roman-born patron saint of shoemakers, and one of those days in English history on which much happened. It saw the death of two English kings: Stephen in 1154 and George III in 1760; and two major English cultural figures: the poet Geoffrey Chaucer in 1400 and the artist William Hogarth in 1764. Yet it is for Henry V’s great victory at Agincourt in 1415 that it is best known.

With the prospect of engagement with French forces numbering six times those of the English king, Shakespeare has him deliver this speech to his men:

This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.