St George!

[caddyman]

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

Exeunt. Alarum, and chambers go off



Probably politically incorrect in this day and age, but frankly I don’t give a wet slap.

Today is St George’s Day and also the birth and death date of Bill the Bard. Every year I intend to get a red rose to wear in my lapel. Every year I forget.

Very little is made of St George’s Day, unlike St Patrick’s Day (world wide), or St David’s and St Andrew’s Days in Wales and Scotland respectively. Maybe the English need their symbols less, or maybe the English have forgotten their symbols. I am too tired to start or get involved in anything like a coherent debate on national identity. I just think that it would be nice to have a National Holiday on St George’s Day like many other nations have on their patron saint’s day.

Comments

[ellefurtle.livejournal.com]

Oooo you've reminded me that Dad will be going to the St George's Day Society Annual DInner tonight. Someone is not going to be happy at work tomorrow....

[queenortart.livejournal.com]

I feel all stirred now!

[fencingsculptor.livejournal.com]

And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not

*sigh*

If only.
Top post sir !

[littleonionz.livejournal.com]

As much as St George is a bit of a tart when it comes to patroning countries, I think a public holiday would be appropriate. Also; we would probably all be a little less grumpy if we had approaching the amount of public holidays that some of our neighbors have.

[pauln.livejournal.com]

Could we find a new patron saint with a day in October then? We've got loads of bank holidays around this time (two for Easter, plus Mayday and Whitsun), but only the solitary August one in the long run to the end of the year.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Catholic.org lists First October as St. Remegius' Day.

More seriously, October 13th is St. Edward the Confessor. Alfred the Great is October 26th.

And if we're going all Henry V, St. Crispin & Crispinian's Day is October 25th.

[sack-boy.livejournal.com]

October 21st is Apple Day, a celebration of British Apples in all their varieties and forms. Sounds good to me.

[pauln.livejournal.com]

I knew we had some weird and wonderful coves tucked away, but I wasn't ever aware that Alfred had been canonised.

Edward the Confessor would be good. I think going for Edward Campion on October 1st might be pushing it a bit.

[theo]

St Crispin would be a very fine patron saint to mark our recent rapprochement with the French.

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

Yes, people here make a fuss of St Patrick's Day, whether they are actually Irish or not, so it's a good excuse for a potluck. Supposedly, if you do not wear something green on that day, others are entitled to pinch you, but I've never seen it happen.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Though the massive upsurge in the celebration of St. Patricks over the last 20 years is much more to do with United Distillers and Guinness than it is anything else.

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

Really? I never see much about it in the media here, but there are usually St Patrick's Day promo displays for snacks and soda in the shops, and work colleagues put up cardboard leprechaun wotsits about the office and bring in potluck items, and wear green blouses, shirts, etc. I never saw anything like it for St George's Day before I emigrated, so maybe it's all-but meaningless to the English. I would have known nothing about it today if Bry hadn't posted this.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

I think 5 years ago, St. George's Day was all but meaningless to the majority of English people - certainly the flag was seen as tainted by the BNP and other right wing nationalists. That's changing, though - official buildings are flying St. George's Cross today, and there are several companies running advertising campaigns based around celebrating today.

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

Interesting. What a shame that a gaggle of fascists make ones national pride appear a bit mad.

[agentinfinity.livejournal.com]

I have gathered from Americans of my aquaintance that descending from Irish stock is a source of pride, but descending from English stock is a source of shame. Perhaps that's part of it.

Post-colonial self-loathing for the win.

Happy St. George's Day.

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

Blimey! I've never heard that (maybe they are being polite). I still often hear "I like your accent," in friendly tones, and sometimes am told stuff like "My grandparents/parents were from England," or "I was born in (enter English town of your choice)," but never shamefacedly.

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

I've never felt any shame about it or sensed it in others, but it is a bit boring. It's just more interesting to have ancestors from countries that at least have a different language than English, and some kind of distinct culture that isn't already pretty much embedded in American culture. (My own ancestors are a snoozefest, mostly English and Irish.)

It so happens that the first ancestor of my father's side of the family in the U.S. was a red coat who came over here to fight the colonists in the Revolutionary War! I should be very ashamed of that, I guess, but really I'm kind of tempted to start a "Daughters of the Hated British" organization, inspired by the real Daughters of the American Revolution group (for descendants of the patriots). Though since the thought only crosses my mind for about a minute and a half every 4th of July, I'm guessing it will never happen.

[theo]

An American friend declined an invitation to join DAR on the grounds that she was more proud of the part of her line that descended from a British infantryman who returned to the US after being demobbed in the late 18th century.

[theo]

The Royal Society of Saint George, which has numbered me anoung its members these many years, is roughly evenly divided between cosily nostalgic dreamers. I am sure that middlegrounders exist but I rarely meet them. At least it makes for interesting conversations at lunch.

St Andrew's Day

[ruletwo.livejournal.com]

While the Scots do tend to wave the 'Blue Blanket' around a lot, I would like to point out that I have never heard of anybody ever celebrating St Andrew's day. Maybe they get it all out of their system at Burns's night.

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

We're supposedly a Protestant country with a history of "issues" with Catholics. I think this may have a lot to do with why we don't really celebrate saints in general. In that context I think a national holiday for St George would be inappropriate.