~St. David’s Day.~
_Wearing the Leek._
Mr. Brady, in the “Clavis Calendaria,” affirms that the custom of
wearing the leek on St. David’s day is derived from St. David; who,
according to him, caused the Britons under king Cadwallader to
distinguish themselves from their enemies during a great battle, wherein
they conquered the Saxons by virtue of his prayers and that regulation.
Unfortunately he lays no ground for this positive statement, and the
same misfortune attends almost every representation in his book, which
would really be useful if he had pointed to his sources of information.
A work professing to state facts without referring to authorities has no
claim to confidence, whoever may be its author.
For any thing in the shape of ancient and authentic statement to the
contrary, the institution of wearing the leek on St. David’s day by the
saint himself, may rest on a Jeffrey of Monmouth authority, or on
legends of no higher estimation with the historian, than “The famous
History of the Seven Champions of Christendom,” by Richard Johnson.
* * * * *
Shakspeare, whose genius appropriated every thing that his extraordinary
faculty of observation marked for its own, introduces this custom of the
Welch wearing leeks upon St. David’s day into his play of King Henry V.
_Enter Pistol to King Henry._
_Pistol._ _Qui va là?_
_K. Henry._ A friend.
_P._ What’s thy name?
_K. H._ Harry _le Roy_.
_P._ Le Roy! a Cornish name: art thou of Cornish crew?
_K. H._ No, I am a Welchman.
_P._ Knowest thou Fluellen?
_K. H._ Yes.
_P._ Tell him, I’ll knock his _leek_ about his pate
Upon _St. David’s day_.
_K. H._ Do not you wear your dagger in your cap that day, lest he
knock _that_ about yours.
It is again referred to in a dialogue between Henry V. and Fluellen.
_Fluellen._ Your grandfather of famous memory, an’t please your
majesty, and your great-uncle, Edward, the black prince, as I have read
in the chronicles, fought a most prave pattle here in France.
_K. Henry._ They did, Fluellen.
_F._ Your majesty says very true: if your majesties is remembered of it,
the Welchmen did goot service in a garden where _leeks_ did grow,
wearing _leeks_ in their Monmouth caps; which, your majesty knows, is an
honourable padge of the service: and, I do believe, your majesty takes
no scorn to wear the _leek_ upon _Saint Tavy’s day_.
_K. H._ _I wear it_ for a memorable honour: _for I am a Welch_, you
know, good countryman.
This allusion by Fluellen to the Welch having worn the leek in a battle
under the black prince, is not, perhaps, as some writers suppose, wholly
decisive of its having originated in the fields of Cressy or Poictiers;
but it shows that when Shakspeare wrote, Welchmen wore leeks. In the
same play, the well-remembered Fluellen’s enforcement of Pistol to eat
the _leek_ he had ridiculed, further establishes the wearing it as a
usage. Fluellen wears his leek in the battle of Agincourt, which it will
be recollected takes place in this play, and is there mentioned, as well
as in the chronicles, to have been “fought on the day of Crispin
Crispianus,” in the month of October. The scene between Fluellen and
Pistol takes place the day after this battle.
_Enter Fluellen and Gower._
_Gower._ Why wear you your _leek_ to-day? _St. David’s day_ is past.
_Fluellen._ There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in all
things.--The rascally, scald, peggarly, pragging knave, Pistol, a fellow
look you now of no merits, he is come to me with pread and salt
yesterday, look you, and pid me eat my _leek_, it was in a place where I
could not preed no contentions with him, but I will be so pold as to
wear it in my cap till I see him once again, and then--(_Enter
Pistol_)--Got pless you, ancient Pistol! you scurvy knave, Got pless
you!
_P._ Hence! I am qualmish at the smell of _leek_.
_G._ I peseech you heartily scurvy knave, at my desires, and my
requests, and my petitions, to eat, look you, this _leek_.
_P._ Not for Cadwallader, and all his goats.
_F._ There is one goat for you. (_strikes him._) Will you be so goot,
scald knave, as eat it?
_P._ Base Trojan, thou shalt die.
_F._ I desire you to live in the mean time, and eat your victuals; come
there is sauce for it.--(_strikes him._) If you can mock a _leek_, you
can eat a _leek_.
By beating and taunt, Fluellen forces Pistol to eat the leek, and on its
being wholly swallowed, Fluellen exhorts him “when you take occasions to
see _leeks_ hereafter, I pray you, mock at them, that is all!” Having
thus accomplished his purpose, Fluellen leaves Pistol to digestion, and
the consolation of Gower, who calls him “counterfeit cowardly knave:
will you mock at an ancient tradition, begun upon an honourable aspect,
and worn as a memorable trophy of predeceased valour, and dare not
avouch in your deeds any of your words?”
Here we have Gower speaking of the custom of the Welch wearing leeks as
“an ancient tradition,” and as “a memorable trophy of predeceased
valour.” Thoroughly versed in the history of the few reigns preceding
the period wherein he lived, it is not likely that Shakspeare would make
a character in the time of Henry V. refer to an occurrence under the
black prince, little more than half a century before the battle of
Agincourt, as an affair of “ancient tradition.” Its origin may be fairly
referred to a very early period.
A contributor to a periodical work[14] rejects the notion, that wearing
_leeks_ on St. David’s day originated at the battle between the Welch
and the Saxons in the sixth century; and thinks it more probable that
_leeks_ were a _druidic_ symbol employed in honour of the British
_Ceudven_ or Ceres. In which hypothesis, he thinks, there is nothing
strained or far-fetched, presuming that the Druids were a branch of the
Phœnician priesthood. Both were addicted to oak worship; and during the
funereal rites of Adonis at Byblos, _leeks_ and onions were exhibited in
“pots with other vegetables, and called the gardens of that deity.” The
_leek_ was worshipped at _Ascalon_, (whence the modern term of
_Scallions_,) as it was in Egypt. _Leeks_ and onions were also
deposited in the sacred chests of the mysteries both of Isis and Ceres,
the _Ceudven_ of the Druids; _leeks_ are among the Egyptian
hieroglyphics; sometimes a _leek_ is on the head of Osiris; and at other
times grasped in an extended hand; and thence, perhaps, the Italian
proverb, “_Porro che nasce nella mano_,” _a leek that grows in the
hand_, for a virtue. _Porrus_, a _leek_, is derived by Bryant from the
Egyptian god Pi-orus, who is the same as the _Beal Peor_ of the
Phœnicians, and the _Bel_ or _Bellinis_ of the Druids. These accordances
are worth an ancient Briton’s consideration.
Ridicule of national peculiarities was formerly a pleasantry that the
English freely indulged in. They seemed to think that different soil was
good ground for a laugh at a person, and that it justified coarse and
insolent remarks. In an old satirical tract there is the following sneer
at the Welch:
“A WELCHMAN, Is the Oyster that the Pearl is in, for a man may be pickt
out of him. He hath the abilities of the mind in _potentiâ_, and _actu_
nothing but boldnesse. His Clothes are in fashion before his Bodie; and
he accounts boldnesse the chiefest vertue. Above all men he loves a
Herrald, and speakes pedigrees naturally. He accompts none well
descended that call him not Cosen, and prefers _Owen Glendower_ before
any of the nine worthies. The first note of his familiaritie is the
confession of his valour; and so he prevents quarrels. Hee voucheth
Welch a pure, an unconquered language; and courts Ladies with the storie
of their Chronicle. To conclude, he is pretious in his own conceit, and
upon St. David’s day without comparison.”[15]
Not quite so flouting is a poetical satire called,
_The Welchman’s Song in praise of Wales._
I’s come not here to tauke of Prut,
From whence the Welse dos take hur root;
Nor tell long pedegree of Prince Camber,
Whose linage would fill full a chamber;
Nor sing the deeds of ould Saint _Davie_,
The Ursip of which would fill a navie,
But hark you me now, for a liddell tales
Sall make a great deal to the creddit of Wales,
For hur will tudge your eares,
With the praise of hur thirteen seers;
And make you as glad and merry,
As fourteen pot of perry.
There are four other stanzas; one of them mentions the _leek_:
But all this while was never think
A word in praise of our Welse drink:
Yet for aull that is a cup of bragat
Aull England seer may cast his cap at.
And what you say to ale of Webley,
Toudge him as well, you’ll praise him trebly
As well as metheglin, or syder, or meath,
Sall sake it your dagger quite out o’ the seath.
And oat cake of Guarthenion,
With a goodly _leek_ or onion,
To give as sweet a rellis
As e’er did Harper Ellis.[16]
In “Time’s Telescope,” an annual volume already mentioned for its
pleasant varieties and agreeable information, there is a citation of
flouting lines from “Poor Robin’s Almanac,” of 1757, under the month of
_March_:
The _first of this month_ some do keep,
For honest Taff to wear his _leek_;
Who patron was, they say, of Wales,
And since that time, cuts-plutter-a nails,
Along the street this day doth strut
With hur green _leek_ stuck in hur hat,
And if hur meet a shentleman
Salutes in Welch; and if hur can
Discourse in Welch, then hur shall be
Amongst the green-horned Taffy’s free.
The lines that immediately succeed the above, and follow below, are a
versified record of public violence to the Welch character, which
Englishmen in this day will read with surprise:
But it would make a stranger laugh
To see th’ English hang poor Taff;
A pair of breeches and a coat,
Hat, shoes and stockings, and what not;
All stuffed with hay to represent
The Cambrian hero thereby meant;
With sword sometimes three inches broad,
And other armour made of wood,
They drag hur to some publick tree,
And hang hur up in effigy.
These barbarous practices of more barbarous times have disappeared as
knowledge has advanced.
* * * * *
St. David’s day in London is the Anniversary of “the most Honourable and
Loyal Society of Ancient Britons,” established in 1714; they celebrate
it with festivity in behalf of the Welch charity-school in
Grays-inn-road, which was instituted in 1718 for boarding, clothing, and
educating 80 boys and 25 girls, born of Welch parents, in or within ten
miles of the metropolis, and not having a parochial settlement within
those limits. This institution has the king for patron as prince of
Wales, and is supported by voluntary contributions. The “Ancient
Britons,” according to annual custom, go in procession to the royal
residence on St. David’s day, and receive the royal bounty. The society
are in carriages, and each wears an artificial representation of the
_leek_ in his hat, composed of ribbands and silver foil. They have been
sometimes accompanied by horsemen decorated in the same way, and are
usually preceded by marshals, also on horseback, wearing _leeks_ of
larger dimension in their hats, and ornamented with silk scarfs. In this
state they proceed from the school-house to some adjacent church, and
hear a discourse delivered on the occasion, by a prelate or other
dignified clergyman. The day is concluded by an elegant dinner under the
regulation of stewards, when a collection is made for the institution,
and a handsome sum is generally contributed.
* * * * *