Recycling Does Work. The following is an updated and combined version of previous posts commemorating the day of St. Crispin, the patron of one of my other blogs.
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| Azincourt, Pas-de-Calais, France |
October 25, 1415
This day is called the feast of Crispin:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispin.
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 accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
- Wm. Shakespeare, Henry V, Act IV, Scene 3
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| 3812 Oak Lawn Ave, Dallas, Texas |
October 25, 2013
In addition to his titanic literary talents, William Shakespeare was politically savvy and knew how to ingratiate himself with the powers that were. Some have gone so far as to claim the Histories (which included Richard II, Richard III, Henry IV (parts 1 & 2), and Henry VI (parts 1 & 2) as well as Henry V) were written at least in part as Tudor propaganda during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. His depiction of Richard III as a depraved and deformed monster who was overthrown by the noble and virtuous Henry Tudor, Elizabeth’s grandfather, is a case in point. In any event, the St. Crispin’s day speech may well have been written to remind the English of Elizabeth’s exhortation to her forces to successfully repulse the attempted Spanish invasion of 1588, and thus foster English nationalism. It evidently served both of them well.
In addition to King Henry V’s victorious battle of Agincourt in 1415, St. Crispin’s was the day of the Battle of Balaklava during the Crimean War in 1854 where the less successful Charge of the Light Brigade occurred, and the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944 when the U.S. Navy consigned nearly the entire Japanese fleet to the bottom of the sea. The U. S. Invasion of Graneda to expel a Cuban sponsored Marxist takeover occurred on the day in 1983. Quotations from Henry’s speech have furnished many a title and pithy quote for military as well as other works of fact and fiction.
St. Crispin’s Day remains a Black Letter Saint’s Day on the Anglican Calendar (for obvious reasons), but not on the Roman. It seems that the Vatican II Council decided there was insufficient evidence that St. Crispin ever existed. Perhaps accurate history, but, as an Orthodox priest of my acquaintance once remarked, bad PR. Shakespeare, however, knew that when the legend becomes fact, print the legend. (Quote from The Man who Shot Liberty Valance, (John Ford film, 1962)
T.S. Eliot wrote that April is the cruelest month. That may be so to certain perspectives, but I find that October is one of the most uncertain and eventful months. For one thing, here in Texas there is a saying that if you don’t like the weather wait 15 minutes and it will change. That adage is truer in October that it is in any other month. I recall near 100 degrees at the State Fair, as well below freezing temperatures around Hallowe’en.
Putting aside the weather, there been a number of other momentous events in history that occurred in October. The battle of Hastings on October 14, 1066 in which the present Queen Elizabeth II’s distant ancestor William of Normandy conquered England and established his line of succession which is unbroken to this day.
Fast-forward to the United States in 1962, 51 years ago to the week of this writing, the United States and the Soviet Union faced off in what has become to be known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. Many have opined that this is the closest the world has ever come to wholesale nuclear war. Some dispute this, and I reserve judgment. It was nevertheless a significant turning point in the Cold War. An ironic note: of the three major participants, President John F. Kennedy, Soviet president (or whatever his title was ) Nikita Khrushchev, and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, Kennedy was assassinated little more than a year later, Khrushchev was deposed in 1964 and died in 1977. Castro remains alive and in actual, if not formal, power (although his current state of health is a matter of mystery and speculation). On an even more ironic note, Sergei Khrushchev, Nikita’s son is now a U.S. citizen, and lives in Rhode Island.
Tomorrow is the 132st anniversary of the Gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. As insignificant as this event probably was, it made Wyatt Earp a legend of the old West, and spawned no fewer than five motion pictures. Made millions for Hollywood.
And of course, today October 25 is St. Crispin’s Day. It is one more day that most of those in our old school class has outlived. But there are those whose hour upon the stage was cut short, and we will also remember them at this time and pray that they have gone safe home.
Here is the entire passage for those interested:
This day is called the feast of Crispin:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispin.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispin:'
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 remember'd.
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 remember'd;
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 accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
Note: Sts. Crispin and Crispian were twins reputed to have been martyred for the faith in the Third Century. They both were commemorated, but Crispian got short shrift.
Hey! If you can't be a little over the top at a time like this . . .
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