St. Crispin's Day

Today used to be the Feast of Saints Crispin and Crispinian, who have not fared well in modern times. No one remembers Crispin's brother, Crispinian: folks just call it "St. Crispin's Day." Then, at Vatican II, their feast day was removed
for insufficient evidence that they ever existed. (The French and the English tell completely different stories about the brothers.)

Today, we probably wouldn't remember St. Crispin's Day at all were it not for William Shakespeare, who wrote one of his most stirring speeches for "Henry V." Even folks who have never seen the play have heard lines from Henry's speech on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt.

Back when I was doing stand-up comedy, during our invasion of Panama, I noted how unlikely a military leader George H.W. Bush seemed to be. I dramatized the point by doing an impression of Bush doing Henry V's "St. Crispin's Day speech." (Is it any wonder that I never became a headlining comic?)

If you'd like a hear the "St. Crispin's Day speech" done the way it should be done, here's a link.