Popular Culture Review Vol. 16, No. 2, Summer 2005 | Page 42

38 Popular Culture Review veneration of the saint reached England St. George’s story presented him as a Roman knight who rode about the countryside righting wrongs and preaching Christianity, who saved a city and a princess from a voracious human-eating dragon, and wdiose martyrdom under Diocletian was a miraculous event. St. George was twice killed, tvsdce brought back to life, dying only on the third attempt at execution, when he was beheaded (Caxton 3: 129). Most of the elements of this legend appeared in the numerous plays, pageants, and processions mounted by English parishes, large and small, rich and poor, to celebrate St. George’s Day (Riches 1). Many churchwardens’ accounts record an image of St. George being carried about, a dra