Week FOUR - Once More Unto the Breach

Once more unto the breach.....
......... and once more into your britches!

Meaning

Let us try again one more time.  In our case let us renew our resolve and commitment to our goal... and to fit into those curve-hugging jeans.

Origin

'Once more unto the breach' - is from the 'Cry God for Harry, England, and Saint George!' speech of Shakespeare's Henry V, Act III, 1598.

The breach in question is the gap in the wall of the city of Harfleur, which the English army held under siege. Henry was encouraging his troops to attack the city again, no matter the cost.

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=762159

The quote comes from the play King Henry V; the king is encouraging the soldiers who are attacking a walled city. They have made a breach in the city walls, and are fighting there against the defenders. The king is telling them to show courage and attack again. Used as a common expression, it means that one is going to return to "battle", whether it is a real battle or just the little daily battles one has against the paperwork in one's office, or the dirty dishes in one's kitchen.

Suppose Jim and Tom are workers in an office. They are attending a meeting, which has been going on for hours. There is a short break to allow people to get coffee or use the bathroom. Jim and Tom step out of the meeting room to drink some coffee, and relax for a a few minutes. They see the other people returning to the room to continue the meeting, and Jim then says to Tom, "Well, I guess it's once more unto the breach " Tom would understand this to mean "I suppose we need to stop resting and get back to the meeting."

KING HENRY V:

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;

Or close the wall up with our English dead.

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;

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,

Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;

Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Let pry through the portage of the head

Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it

As fearfully as doth a galled rock

O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,

Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.

Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,

Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit

To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.

Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!

Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,

Have in these parts from morn till even fought

And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:

Dishonour not your mothers; now attest

That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.

Be copy now to men of grosser blood,

And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,

Whose limbs were made in England, show us here

The mettle of your pasture; let us swear

That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;

For there is none of you so mean and base,

That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,

Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:

Follow your spirit, and upon this charge

Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'