Apologies for the history lesson (and the recent paucity of posts – go back to the start for the reason why) but you may or may not know that today is St Crispin’s Day.
So what, I hear you ask?
Well, some rather famous things happened on this day.
So what I hear you ask again There are 365 days in a normal year and calendars of various descriptions have been around for thousands of years so it’s probable that something of note happened on every day of the years in human history. January 10th, for example was the anniversary of the CB and my nuptials, just shading the birthday of Pat Benatar for significance. But I digress.
St Crispin’s Day has religious significance obviously – the “St” bit gives that away. It commemorates the martyrdom of Crispin and his twin Crispinian in 286. They were beheaded by the Romans for preaching Christianity. Rather a severe consequence for something so seemingly insignificant but such were the times. But I digress (again) as that’s not the focus of today’s lecture.
Today in 1854 was the ill-fated but heroic Charge of the Light Brigade during the Battle of Balaclava in Crimea. But more importantly it was the day the Battle of Agincourt was fought in 1415. And if you’ve read this far, you’ve got to the crux of the story.
If you haven’t already read it, I’m going to share with you one of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches. How did we segue to that you are asking? Well in his play Henry V, King Henry (or Harry as he liked to be called) makes the famous Band of Brothers speech just before the vastly outnumbered British take on the French at Agincourt.
Harry’s would be one of the most inspirational pre-battle speeches (you can keep your “because no one can take away our freedom”, Mel Gibson) in history, if it wasn’t made up by Shakespeare. But fiction of non-fiction, it is said to have inspired Churchill’s famous “Never was so much owed by so many to so few” Battle of Britain speech and many others. So I am reproducing it here for your reading and edumacational pleasure. It starts with the King’s cousin lamenting the lack of numbers:
WESTMORLAND. O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day!
KING. What’s he that wishes so?
My cousin, Westmorland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark’d to die, we are enough
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmorland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man’s company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
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 Crispin’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 rememberèd—
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.
Be inspired!