At the Vote Leave HQ on the night of the Brexit vote, Daniel Hannan leapt on to a table at 4.30am to quote from Shakespeare. There was little surprise which passage he chose: Henry V’s St Crispin’s Day speech given on the eve of Agincourt. “Gentlemen in England now a-bed/Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,” Hannan roared, swapping out the names of King Hal’s “happy few” – “Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot” – and replacing them with those of Brexit campaigners.
When a certain kind of male English “patriot” puffs out his chest it is invariably “cry God for Harry, England and Saint George!” he has in mind. You imagine, in this regard, that Hannan and his “band of brothers” might want to steer clear of the Globe theatre later this week – on the eve of Remembrance Day – when a new production of Shakespeare’s martial play, directed by Holly Race Roughan, will open.
