medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Here is something I just posted to the Shaksper list, slightly
revised for this forum:
Yesterday, Oct. 25, was the feast day of Sts. Crispin and
Crispinian, and the 587th anniversary of the Battle of
Agincourt. Shakespeare has Henry V famously exhort his men by
calling on Crispin (at 4.3.18ff),
This day is called the Feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day and comes safe home
Will stand a-tiptoe when this day is named
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall see this day and live t'old age
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours
And say, 'Tomorrow is Saint Crispian...'
And there are three more references to St. Crispin in this
speech, for a total of six.
It seems that Shakespeare merged Crispin and Crispinian into
one, and called him variously Crispin, Crispian, and Crispin
Crispian. Regarding them in the plural, who were they? Dr.
Jesice's "Saints of the Day" has this:
"Crispin and Crispinian (d. c. 287) There are two alternative
views on these two brothers. A late legend reports that they
went to preach in Gaul, where they lived as shoemakers until
caught up in a persecution, tortured, sentenced to a variety of
lurid executions that all failed, and were finally beheaded. A
more prosaic modern interpretation is that they may have been
early Roman martyrs whose relics were sent to Soissons."
Gary Taylor's edition of Henry V (Oxford, 1982) summarizes the
link to Shakespeare by saying that the brothers were the patron
saints of shoemakers and that the feast day was listed in
Elizabethan and Jacobean almanacs, and was important into the
17th century. Brewer's Phrase & Fable elaborates by saying the
brothers were patron saints of not just shoemakers but also
saddlers and tanners.
But what accounts for Shakespeare's repeated invocation of
"Crispian"? The speech is startlingly democratic in its call--
And Crispin Crispian shall n'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 today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition...
--which suggests that such references to Crispian would resonate
strongly in the audience. Were these French or Roman saints as
popular as that in Protestant England?
Al Magary
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