Once More Unto the Breach

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Brian in Wyoming.

Brian in Wyoming.

Hi, Brian. Welcome to the show.

Thanks, Grant.

Let me tell you what my question was. The other day, a friend and I were saddling up to get off and do a rather dangerous, dirty job, and I said to him, well, once more into the breach. He had never heard the phrase. I got started thinking you don’t hear it very much. If anything, these days you hear it as a security breach, an information breach. And I just wondered if you guys knew the origins of that, like the breach of an artillery piece or the breach of a pistol or rifle.

Yeah, they’re all the same. They’re all referred to a gap. That’s it. It’s a space between two things or one thing that has a space in it, including a breach berth, actually. But the particular phrase that you’re talking about comes from a Shakespeare play, Henry V. There’s a rousing scene where the troops are basically being rallied. There’s a couple interpretations of this, but I’m going with the rousing scene part. And the line is something like, once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, or close the wall up with our English dead. So basically he’s saying either get in there and fight, or we’re just going to block them with our dead bodies.

Great. I had thought possibly maybe Wellington at Trafalgar or something, too. But, yeah, it’s neat. Shakespeare.

Yeah, he probably quoted it. Henry V is actually a really accessible play. There’s much of this that reflects, even today, kind of the political intrigues of any major world government. It’s funny how much he nailed the push and pull of what kind of war are we fighting here anyway, the fight over the kinds of battles that we lead. Nothing changes, I guess.

No, no. What was the dirty work that you were doing when you thought about this once more into the breach?

I work in the oil fields. I drive a water truck in the oil patch.

Oh, I see. Wow, yeah, that could— So you get out here in the middle of the night in the blizzard sometime, you’ll see what I’m talking about.

No, thanks. Send me pictures. That’s enough. It’s all yours. I’ll be in San Diego.

Thank you so much for your call, Brian. Really appreciate it.

Thanks very much. All right, take care now.

Take care. Bye-bye.

Once more into the breach. It’s hair-raising. It really is. I mean, read the little bit that comes before. I just dig that up. Google once more Under the Breach, all of Shakespeare’s online for free. In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility. But when the blast of war blows in our ears, then imitate the action of the tiger.

Oh, indeed. Indeed. It’s good, right?

Oh, yeah. There’s a wonderful Kenneth Branagh film.

Yeah. Oh, he’s outstanding. One of the best Shakespeareans that we have alive, right?

Yeah. Bloody, bloody movie. Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, disguise fair nature with hard-favored rage.

Good. Yeah, it’s good stuff. That’s good.

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