Henry V

[few]

"Once more unto the breach dear friends".Where was the breach

[Ethel]

Harfleur, France

[Quizmonster]

To add a little to Ethel's perfectly correct answer...Henry's army were attacking Harfleur and had clearly already made a partial break through the defensive wall around the town. All that was needed now was another determined push forward to take it or die in the attempt...ie "close the wall up with our English dead."
So, the breach was in the wall around Harfleur.

[sissimarissa]

It was Henry V, and then the band of brothers went on to Agincourt for October 25 and Henry's St. Crispin's day speech:
"And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here"

(Quizmonster - surely it is "Henry's army was attacking ...(Henry's armies were attacking..))

[jno]

it's quite possible that armies in those days attacked as a rabble of single people rather than the disciplined force they became in the 19th and 20th centuries so it might well have looked to an observer as if 'were' is the correct word!

[Quizmonster]

Sissi, I've responded to this "singular/plural verb with collective nouns" thing so often that it's becoming quite tiresome...but here goes again...
Weekly in The Times, a �Feedback' column responds to readers' complaints. On March 10th 2007, one had written (abbreviated),,,
"I am writing to highlight the increasing incorrect use of collective nouns with plural verbs...'the team are doing this' or �England are doing that'..."
The editor responded...
"Actually it isn't incorrect. To quote Gowers: �In using collective words or nouns of multitude (department, government, committee and the like...there is no rule; either a singular or a plural verb may be used.'"
The Gowers referred to was Sir Ernest Gowers, the author of The Complete Plain Words (TCPW) first published in 1954. His words are echoed by those of the editor of Fowler's Modern English Usage (FMEU), who expresses the selfsame thought as, "In British English, collective nouns may be correctly followed by either a singular or a plural verb."
(Note the use of the word �may' by both...ie you need to consider the particular circumstances and it will depend on whether you are concentrating on the word's singularity or plurality aspect.)
These two publications have long been regarded as �bibles' of current English usage. Despite that, every time the question we are discussing here is asked and I pass on the views of the experts above, someone invariably appears and says exactly what the mistaken writer of the letter to The Times said...ie that one form of verb or the other is wrong.
Clearly, above I was concentrating on the army's plurality aspect. Cheers

[jno]

one oddity (as Quizmonster will know) is sports teams... the club will usually be singular but the team will be plural. Arsenal has a nice stadium. Arsenal are a rubbish team.

Sorry, this is all getting a bit off-topic, few.

[heathfield]

Gowers TCPW should be required reading in every school in the land. I bought it when it first appeared, and learned more about English in a couple of hours than from all of my schooldays put together.

[sissimarissa]

Quizmonster. I am grateful for your most interesting and valuable reply and very much appreciate the information you have put into it. Thank you.

[mike b]

The magic phrase is "constructio ad sensum" ...

[heathfield]

'Harfleur, harfleur, harfleur onward, into the Valley of Death...'

Wasn't that in the Crimea?

[heathfield]

Sorry!

[-=BigD=-]

Isn't it next to the sea...

[jno]

tch, heathfield, do pay attention.