BOOK
II.

St. George's Day, April 23, though now passed over without notice, was formerly celebrated by feasts of cities St. George and corporations, as we learn from Johan Bale, who, speaking of the neglect of public libraries, has the following curious apostrophe :

Royal
Spurs.

Blue Coats.

"O cyties of Englande, whose glory standeth more in bellye chere, then in the serche of Wysdome godlye. How cometh it that neyther you, nor your ydell masmongers, haue regarded thys most worthy commodyte of your countrey? I mean the conservacyon of your Antiquytees, and of the worthy labours of your lerned men: 1 thynke the renowne of suche a notable acte wolde haue much longar endured than of all your belly bankettes and table tryumphes, eyther yet of your newely purchased hawles to kepe S. Georges feast in."*

The king's spurs became the fee of the choristers at Windsor on installations and feasts on St. George's day, In the "Privy Purse Expenses of Henry the Seventh" is an entry under the year 1495:

"Oct. 1. At Windesor. To the children for the spoures

A similar disbursement occurs thrice in the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry the Eighth in 1530.+

Among courtiers and people of fashion, blue coats were worn on this day. Captain Face, a character in the "Ram Alley," alludes to the custom among the knights :

"Do you bandy tropes? By Dis I will be knight,

Wear a blue coat on great St. George's day,

And with my fellows drive you all from Paul's."‡

In Epigram 33 of The Second Bowle, by Thomas Freeman, 4to. 1614, quoted in Dodsley's Old Plays is this distich: :

Preface to The Laboryeuse Journey and Serche of John Leylande for Englandes Antiquitees. In Lives of Leland, Hearne, and Wood, Vol. 1. sign. C.

+ Excepta Historica, p. 105.

Dodsley's Old Plays, Vol. V. p. 486.

"With's eorum nomine keeping greater sway,
Than a court blew Coat on St. George's day."

Dr. Forster having mentioned an allusion to this dress in Reed's Old Plays, Vol. xii, observes that it was "probably because blue was the fashionable colour of Britain, over which St. George presides, and not in imitation of the clothing of the fields in blue, by the flowering of the blue bells, as many have supposed."+

BOOK
II.

St. George.

George.

The standard of St. George was borne before our ancient Standard kings in battle: thus in a minstrel piece written about the of St. year 1417, it is mentioned that the French at the battle of Agincourt:

"Sent Jorge be fore our kyng they did se."+ His name was the ancient war cry, and many allusions to it are found in old writers. When Richard the Third receives the news of Stanley's defection, he cries :

"Advance our standard, set upon our foes!

Our ancient wont of courage, fair Saint George,
Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragon!"§

:

But this standard and war cry were not peculiar to the English, as appears from a Suio-Gothic Chronicle, quoted by Ihre :

War cries.

It was either so general, or so famous a cry, that the old Germans converted the name of the Saint into a verb, by which they expressed the inclamations of other national war cries. Thus, in Stricker, it is said that the French cry

* Dodsley's Old Plays, Vol. XII. p. 398.

+ Peren. Calend. p. 185.

Warton, Hist. Engl. Poetry, Vol. II. p. 36.

See also First Part of Henry the Sixth, Act IV. Sc. 6.

BOOK

II.

St. George.

of "Montjoy Saint Denis" was Georged by the Chris

tians :-

"Mungsgoy wart mit schalle
Gregoriit von der Christen."*

An equestrian statue of St. George, erected in many parish churches, was often extravagantly decorated as appears from an ancient history of Reading. Hollinworth, a noted puritanical preacher and author at the time of the Commonwealth, says in his manuscript History of Manchester, preserved in the Chetham Library there; "In the chappell, where morning sermons were wont to be preached called St. George his Chappell was the statua of St. George on horseback banged up. His horse was lately [circa 1656] in the sadler's shop. The statues of the virgin Mary and St. Dyonise the other patron Sts. were upon the highest pillars next to the quire. Unto them men did usually bow at their coming in the church.†

His celebrity in England rivalled that of St. James in Spain, and in an old poem in praise of the Willoughbies of Eresby, the following extravagant invocation appears:—

"O holy St. George, O very champion!

O undefyled and most holy knight!

O gem of chivalry! O very emeraud stone!

O load star of loyalty, O diamond most gwyght!

O saphir of sadness, O Mantese of Ynde!

Grant me thy helpe, that comfort to find."

The life of St. George, however, unless he be greatly belied, was distinguished by anything but chivalry or sanctity: Gibbon has critically examined his history, and has the following curious remarks: "The two extraordinary Legend of circumstances in the Legend of George of Cappadocia are St. George. his gradual formation from a heretic to a saint, and from a

Ihre, Gloss. Suio-Goth. Tom. II. p. 318.

+ Mancuniensis, MS. fo. 11. In the Chetham or College Library, Manchester.

Dugdale, Baronag. Vol. II. p. 85.

saint to a knight-errant, I. It clearly appears from Epi-
phanius (Hæres. lxxvi.) that some persons revered George
as a martyr, because he had been massacred by the pagans.
But as Epiphanius observes with truth, that his vices, not
his faith, had been the cause of his death; the Arians dis-
guised the object of their veneration by changing the time
and place of his martyrdom, stigmatized his adversary
Athanasius under the title of Athanasius the Magician, and
when they returned to the Catholic church, they brought
with them a new saint, of whose character they had insen-
sibly lost the remembrance. At first, he was received with
coldness and distrust, and in the year 494, the council of
Rome, held under Pope Gelasius, mentions his Acts as
composed by heretics, and his person as better known to
God than to man. But in the succeeding century, his
glory broke out with sudden lustre both in the East and in
the West. See the contemporary testimonies of Procopius
[de Edificiis 1. iii.] of Venantius Fortunatus [1. ii. carm. 13]
of Gregory of Tours [de gloria martyrum l. i. c. 101,] and
of Gregory of Rome, [in Libro Sacram.] New legends
were invented by the lively fancies of the Greeks, which
described the stupendous miracles and sufferings of the
Great Martyr: and from Lydda in Palestine [See Glaber,
1. iii. c. 7, Wilhelm. Tyr. 1. 8, 22.] the supposed place of
his burial, devout pilgrims transported the suspicious relics
which adorned the temples erected to his honor in all the
countries of Europe and Asia. II. The genius of chivalry
and romance mistook the symbolical representations, which
were common to St. George of Cappadocia and to several
other saints, the dragon painted under their feet was de-
signed for the devil, whom the martyr transpierced with the
spiritual lance of faith, and thus delivered the church, des-
cribed under the figure of a woman. But in the time of
the crusades, the dragon so common in Eastern romance,
was considered as a real monster slain near the city of
Silena in Lybia, by the christian hero, who (like another
Perseus) delivered from his fury a beautiful and real damsel

BOOK

II.

St. George.

BOOK
II.

named St. Margaret. In the great battle of Antioch, St. George fought on the side of the Christians at the head of St. George. an innumerable host, whose shields, banners, &c. were perfectly white and the truth of this prodigy, so analogous to his character, is attested by contemporaries and witnesses [Robert. Hist. Hierosolym. 1. v. et vii. Petrus Tudebrod. ap. Duchesne. tom. iv.] The name of St. George, who on other occasions in Spain and Italy is said to have lent a similar aid, was invoked by princes and warriors as that of their peculiar patron. Cities and kingdoms, Malta, Genoa, Barcelona, Valencia, Arragon, England, &c. adopted him as their tutelar saint: and even the Turks have vied with the Christians in celebrating the martial prowess of their Knight of celestial enemy, whom they style the Knight of the White the White Horse, [Cotobii in Itinerar. Cantacuzen. in Apol. iii. contra Mahometanos]. An ample collection of whatever relates to St. George may be found in the Bollandists. [Acta Sanctorum mens. April, Jan. iii. p. 100-163]. The first who discovered the Arian prosecutor under the mask of sanctity was Isaac Pontanus de Rebus Amstelodam. b. ii. c. 4, and although father Papebroche, [Acta SS. Boll. p. 112,] is extremely angry with him, the more candid Abbé de Longuerne (Longuewand) embraces the opinion of Pontanus with pleasure and assurance. Perhaps our knights of the garter would be somewhat astonished at reading this short history of their patron.'

Horse.

Symbolical The hint, casually thrown out by the historian of Rome, Dragons. has been expanded into a treatise on the dragon of Metz, by a learned Frenchman, M. Alexandre Lenoir, who demonstrates that the monsters, which in the legends of the Middle Ages, ravaged so many countries, and were destroyed only by the miraculous intervention of a supernatural being, are referable to the astronomical themes of Per

* Miscel. Works, Vol. V., p. 490. St. George's fame and popularity in Europe, and especially in England, proceeded from the Crusades. Decl. Rom. Emp. Vol. IV., ch. 23, n. 125.