William Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream

I was a boarder at Kingwell Court School in 1956. Motto: 'Be Strong Gently'. A wonderful school. It is where I learnt Latin. Fellow pupils had a phrase:

'Latin is a language,
As dead as dead can be,
It used to kill the Romans,
And now it's killing me!'

Pupils from that era are often familiar with that phrase. Especially when they visit Winchester and view with awe the 900 year old Bible written in Vulgate Latin (old Latin; language of the monks).

One particular memory returns so very often.

Boys from the top form were to act Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream outside on a pristine lawn opposite the beautiful school building dating back to the eighteen hundreds. The scene was one of silent mystery. The atmosphere one of wonder, curiosity, gentle excitement and a touch of wonder.

The scene described where six amateur actors (in the Midsummer Night's dream story, not actors today). They are rehearsing a play which they will perform before the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. They find themselves in a forest inhabited by fairies who manipulate the humans and are engaged in their domestic intrigue. Shakespeare 
A Midsummer Night's Dream

 An excerpt:

"It is not night when I do see your face,
Therefore I think I am not in the night;
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,
For you in my respect all the world;
Then how can it be said I am alone,
When all the world is here to look on me?"

William Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream written by Simon Lever in association with Beauty and the Beast Publishing. Images courtesy of Simon Lever