A Cause Worth Fighting For: Shakespeare’s Henry V Immortalized Sts. Crispin and Crispian

“This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d.”

—Henry V (William Shakespeare)

(This article was originally written and published last year.)

Today is the feast of Sts. Crispin and Crispian (or Crispinian). The saints were brothers, cobblers, evangelists, and martyrs:

“[CatholicSaints.info] Brothers and members of the imperial Roman nobility. Together they evangelized Gaul in the middle 3rd century. They worked from Soissons, France where they preached in the streets by day, made shoes by night. Their charity, piety, and contempt of material things impressed the locals, and many converted in the years of their ministry. Martyred under emperor Maximian Herculeus, being tried by Rictus Varus, governor of Belgic Gaul and an enemy of Christianity.”

Ironically, it was an English writer who immortalized these martyrs—and in the context of an English army defeating a French force. William Shakespeare had the title character in his play Henry V inspire his outnumbered and exhausted men before the Battle of Agincourt with a speech famously known as the St. Crispin’s Day speech. Below are selections from that immortal speech:

“If we are mark’d to die, we are eno[ugh]
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more…

But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England:

God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more, methinks, would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man’s company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.

This day is called the feast of Crispian…
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian:’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day…

This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.”

Both in the play and in history, the English won a great and nearly miraculous victory against their French adversaries at Agincourt, sustaining relatively few losses themselves while inflicting heavy losses on the French, despite being significantly outnumbered. But even more than the battle itself we today remember Henry V’s (or rather Shakespeare’s) speech, a speech which shows that to be a great leader, and to win against massive odds, it is essential to have a strong foundation—namely, faith.

Henry V was a great leader, but he also knew Whose help he needed to win—the help of God and God’s saints. Just as Moses interceded for the Israelites with God, and St. Paul said that he prayed for his flock, Henry V, in the midst of his ambition for honor and his inspiration of his men to the same ambition, indirectly reminded his men that today was important because it was the feast of Crispin and Crispian. Before it was the date of their ultimate victory, it was the feast of two martyrs who were saints because they thought something worth dying for, just as Henry V believed he and his men had a cause worth dying for. Men can accomplish the seemingly impossible when they have faith in God, a faith that can move mountains (Matt. 17:20).

In America today, we have a crying need for people who believe something is worth dying for. And as we listen to the speech that immortalized Sts. Crispin and Crispian, let us vow to follow the examples of the martyrs and of their eulogizer, Shakespeare’s Henry V.