once more unto the breach dear friends meaning

#Once more unto the breach dear friends meaning how to#

It is from a post-Revolutionary account of the battle by Thaddeus Blood. The statement cited, however, was not spoken by Hosmer.

Somewhat more compelling is the officer's lament that Konig attributes to Joseph Hosmer.

He also reminds the soldiers of their nationality, summoning a patriotic pride that he will raise to yet greater heights in the later Crispin’s Day speech.2.

Throughout Henry V’s ‘Once more unto the breach, dear friends’ speech, he makes references to animals known for their ferocity (tigers) or speed (greyhounds), while his talk of ‘breeding’ and ‘pasture’ imply a link between the English soldiers and bulls and rams, tough and hardy animals. With words that have become among the most famous in all of the play, Henry V rallies his troops, calling for them to cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’ – another piece of fine rhetoric utilising the pattern of three, whereby ‘Harry’ (i.e., King Henry V) is linked to both the country the men are fighting for and that country’s patron saint, a knight who embodies the noble qualities Henry wants the soldiers to find in themselves now. To him, the men are like greyhounds straining at their leash, wanting to be released and begin the hunt. Henry concludes his rousing speech by telling the men that none of them is of so humble birth that they don’t possess a noble look in their eyes. The game’s afoot:Ĭry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’ I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, This is a neat piece of rhetoric from Henry, winning the soldiers round: he’s essentially praising them (‘don’t worry, I know you men won’t let me down’) while at the same time calling upon them to prove that they can be relied upon (‘but just remind me, for my sake’).įor there is none of you so mean and base, Henry doesn’t doubt that they are worthy of their English identity, but now is the time to prove it. And turning to the yeomen or farmers (i.e., those men among the ranks who are not noble: some of them were of such low status they weren’t even yeomen, who were technically farmer freeholders), Henry reminds then that their arms and legs are English and so this is their chance to prove the strength that arms of men raised in England are capable of.

#Once more unto the breach dear friends meaning how to#

Next, Henry tells these noblemen to act as a good example for ordinary men to follow, and to teach them how to fight in a war. It’s worth remembering that Henry’s ‘dear friends’ (‘Once more unto the breach, dear friends …’) are noblemen: men of good birth. That you are worth your breeding which I doubt not Whose limbs were made in England, show us here Henry calls on the men not to dishonour their mothers by running away now: stand here and fight, he says, and by doing so prove that those warlike men who sired you actually were your fathers.Īnd teach them how to war. And their fathers were men who, like so many Alexander the Greats, have fought in this part of the world from morning until night, sheathing their swords only when there was no one left to fight with.