George and Harry and Willy and Shirley

     Today is St. George's Day or the Feast of St. George, celebrated in many parts of the world to honor a Christian martyr of whom many tales are told. The English have long held him as a patron saint. They like the version of the legend in which St. George slays a dragon to save a maiden. (This Google doodle posits a world in which the dragon & the slayer become pals.)    

   
     How highly do the English think of St. George? This famous speech, given on the brink of a hopeless battle, will give some indication:
    

     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...
     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!'

     These words of course were penned by William Shakespeare and put into the mouth of Henry V (another national hero) just before his troops perform that favorite English pastime: sticking it to the French (in this case, with arrows). They also provided Sherlock Holmes with one of his most famous phrases.

somebody needs a shave

  
     Nobody knows exactly when Shakespeare was born, but we do know he was baptised on the 26th of April, so traditionally his nativity is celebrated on St. George's Day. So if you are at all an Anglophile, this is the day to break out the tea and crumpets.