April 23rd is the feast day of St. George, the patron saint of England, and for that reason I devote April’s reading to naught but English literature, English history, etc. I am not entirely sure how a man killing dragons in Turkey managed to become the patron saint of England, but the wisdom of our ancestors is in the tradition, and my unhallowed hands shall not touch it or the country’s done for*. By curious coincidence, it is also the death date of William Shakespeare, and — traditionally — Shakespeare’s birthday. They come together in Shakespeare’s “Henry V”.
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 GEOOOOOORRRRGE!!’
[*] That’s a Dickens reference.
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