HE is the most famous saint of whom you have heard, but probably know little or nothing. His name is irrevocably associated with English triumph on the field of battle. Shakespeare is the culprit, of course, to whose essential contribution we must add the historical reality of Henry V and some uplifting theatrical and film interpretations. It’s pure histrionics, but when we listen to that call to arms on St Crispin’s Day we cannot but stand a little taller.
St Crispin, whose saint’s day is on October 25, may be little more than illuminated briefly by the halo of heroism, for the timing of his inspiration was a coincidence. An English army, weary and short of food, had been plodding for two and a half weeks through Normandy with the objective of returning home via Calais. They were confronted near the village of Azincourt by a larger French force—a battle was inevitable. Both armies bedded down for the night. According to contemporary reports, Henry V decreed his men should spend it in silence on pain of having an ear cut off, but Shakespeare had him moving among the watchfires, addressing his men as ‘brothers, friends and country-men’ and encouraging them ‘with cheerful semblance and sweet majesty’. It was a proper prelude to the rousing speech imagined by the Bard as some 8,000 English men faced double their number on St Crispin’s Day 1415.
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin October 23, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin October 23, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
