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Posted By: dxb Happy St George's day William Shakespeare. - 04/23/04 05:54 AM


Did George die on his birthdate, too?

Finally:
St George is the patron saint of England and among the most famous of Christian figures. But of the man himself, nothing is certainly known. Our earliest source, Eusebius of Caesarea, writing c. 322, tells of a soldier of noble birth who was put to death under Diocletian at Nicomedia on 23 April, 303, but makes no mention of his name, his country or his place of burial.

I couldn't figure out the Shakespeare connection for the longest time, other than remembering reading somewhere about a pub called The Georgian Dragon , but then came to:
He is particularly the patron saint of archers, which gives special point to these famous lines from Shakespeare's Henry V, Act 3, Scene 1, l. 31:

'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 St George!'.
Indirectly, the spirit of George the soldier saint played a part in modern English history when Sir Laurence Olivier's film of Henry V was issued in 1944 as an encouragement to our armies fighting for the liberation of France.

http://www.britannia.com/history/stgeorge.html

Posted By: dxb Re: Happy St George's day William Shakespeare. - 04/24/04 03:37 PM
St G's day happens to be WS's birthday and also the day he died. Or so it is said.

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