The significance of St Crispin’s Day

Happy St Crispin’s Day. The day commemorates the martyrdom of the twins, Crispin and Crispinian – the patron saints of cobblers, tanners, leather workers and curriers. It is worth remembering because it is a timeless source of inspiration in tough times.

The pair were beheaded in approximately 285 AD during the reign of Roman Emperor Diocletian for preaching Christianity to the people of Gaul. This venerated date was removed from the Catholic liturgical calendar in 1962 but its secular significance will always persist. On St Crispin’s Day in 1415, Henry V famously vanquished his French adversaries across the muddy fields of Agincourt. The story of his conquest was immortalised by the genius of Shakespeare, turning that medieval king into a kind of English superhero. The speech Shakespeare provides for his protagonist before the play’s climactic battle remains one of the most quoted and admired passages of poetry in English literature. It has become a cherished trove of brilliant phrases, regularly cited in songs, books, films and even by real-world commanders.

“This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.“

Outnumbered by the French and fearful of their potential annihilation, Henry’s men lament their predicament and pine for reinforcements from home. Overhearing their reservations, the young king eloquently rallies his disillusioned host. He tells them not to wish for additional help because the smaller the force the greater the share of honour. He galvanises peasant and prince alike by reminding them how gallant acts echo through the ages, how an experience of extraordinary events binds people from all backgrounds together. “This story,” he confidently proclaims, “shall the good man teach his son,” before cheerfully declaring that Crispin’s Day shall never pass without remembrance of their deeds. The fictional Henry was right. We still learn the speech in school or at University and hear old relatives mutter lines to themselves during extra-time or after some personal triumph. No other stretch of fiction so skilfully encapsulates martial values and awakens that dormant defiance against certain death that stirs within us all.

Many Shakespearean scholars have pursued the provenance of this famous oration. Some identify a sermon given in 1599 by Lancelot Andrews as one. Others acknowledge the significance of biblical allusions or are mindful of direct citations from different battles in Shakespeare’s primary source, Holinshed’s Chronicles. Historians have argued that the king would have likely told his troops that he could not afford to pay for their ransom and so their only choice that day was victory or death. Hardly a barnstorming statement, but whatever he said evidently worked. Most agree that Henry probably used that fateful morning for prayer and preparation rather than for rhetoric.

“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.”

In any case, the legacy of this moment in literature is remarkable. Nelson called his captains his “band of brothers” immediately prior to the battle of the Nile. Charles Dickens borrowed the phrase “Household words” as a name for the weekly magazine he edited, and supposedly after hearing Laurence Olivier give his rendition over the radio, Churchill not only commissioned the making of Olivier’s celebrated war-time film, but also took inspiration from that performance when composing “Never was so much owed by so many to so few.”

Shakespeare’s speech is the ultimate rousing pep talk. It fills the hearer’s head with a strange compulsion to engage the insurmountable and overcome the unassailable. It shows the positive power of well-chosen words over rational anguish, and reveals how impassioned reassurances can prepare people to confront their doom without cowardice or distress. It is always good to remember that with enough inspiration, a troubled person can emerge from their plight victorious, just like Henry and his happy few.