"Traditional extreme-right anti-Semitism has not gotten worse in France," explained Roger Cukierman, the then president of the country's main Jewish council. the breach dear friends mean Asked Rachell Jakimychev Last Updated 18th January, 2020 Category family and relationships bereavement 4.5 1,918 Views Votes Meaning Once More Unto the Breach The literal meaning this phrase. Le Pen is an anti-Semite but it wasn't his supporters responsible for the majority of assaults on French Jews. That same year, Jean-Marie Le Pen reached the second round of the presidential election and the left wrung its hands at what the New York Times described as the "resurgence of the violent hatred that caused the holocaust". The right hailed the book (which was based on the testimonies of teachers in France) as proof that a separate set of values were taking root in the Republic with anti-Semitism at its core the left said if there was any racism to be found it came from Bensoussan, who had traduced the Muslim population. The book caused a sensation, and was praised and pilloried in equal measure. The biggest surprise is when Williams punches the king in the face and gets a big brotherly hug.In 2002, the historian Georges Bensoussan published The Lost Territories of the Republic: anti-Semitism, racism and sexism in schools. The one scene which really works is when Henry reads out the list of the dead and the English realize they have actually won the battle against all the odds. Oliver Ford Davies’s Chorus is schoolmasterly dull and Jennifer Kirby as the French Princess overdoes her English lesson. The grim warning to the citizens of Harfleur, as to what will happen to them, if they do not surrender, is also addressed to the audience, and thus both speeches lose their impact. The exhortation, Once more unto the breach, is directed directly at the Barbican audience who, needlessly to say, remains seated. Hassell always is what Henry says he is – just a man like anybody else. There is no charisma, no authority, and no depth to the characterisation. The great soldier, the great statesman, is not visible. The irony is that the king is played by Alex Hassell who played the king’s younger self, Prince Hal, so well in Shakespeare’s Henry IV Parts 1 and 2. The major weakness of Gregory Doran’s production is that you never believe you are watching King Henry. Into this breach has stepped 63-year-old former political commentator Eric Zemmour a different kind of presidential contender, running second to incumbent Emmanuel Macron in some early polls who has spent a career thinking about the broad strokes of his campaign platform, all of which point to greater French independence. It is also more understandable when you appreciate the prisoners outnumbered the English soldiers and the French were liable to renew their attack. The ruthless action always shocks but it is a knee-jerk reaction to the killing of all the luggage boys. The king, once thought of as “the mirror of all Christian kings” is today much more likely to be considered a war criminal on account of his killing all the French prisoners. Kenneth Branagah’s 1989 film and Nicolas Hytner’s 2003 production for the National Theatre with Adrian Lister, performed respectively at the time of the Falklands War and the invasion of Iraq, have followed suit, taking their cue from the sentiments expressed by soldier Williams: “There are few that die well in battle.” John Barton and Trevor Nunn rethought the play as an anti-war tract in 1966 and it was acted by Ian Holm and the RSC as if it were Mother Courage. Shakespeare’s most jingoistic play has been regularly revived to boost morale in times of war: notably in 1805, the year of Trafalgar, in 1815, the year of Waterloo and in 1945 to coincide with D-Day in World War 2. The victory was attributed to King Henry V, who was 29, and his longbowmen who could shoot eight arrows a minute The French, who vastly outnumbered the English, were massacred.
The Battle of Agincourt was fought 600 years ago on 25 October, 1415.
Robert Tanitch reviews the RSC’s Henry V at Barbican, London EC2