The children were at the Theatre, acting to Three Cows as much as they could remember of Midsummer Night's Dream. Their father had made them a small play out of the big Shakespeare one, and they had rehearsed it with him and with their mother till they could say it by heart. They began when Nick Bottom the weaver comes out of the bushes with a donkey's head on his shoulders, and finds Titania, Queen of the Fairies, asleep. Then they skipped to the part where Bottom asks three little fairies to scratch his head and bring him ...
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The children were at the Theatre, acting to Three Cows as much as they could remember of Midsummer Night's Dream. Their father had made them a small play out of the big Shakespeare one, and they had rehearsed it with him and with their mother till they could say it by heart. They began when Nick Bottom the weaver comes out of the bushes with a donkey's head on his shoulders, and finds Titania, Queen of the Fairies, asleep. Then they skipped to the part where Bottom asks three little fairies to scratch his head and bring him honey, and they ended where he falls asleep in Titania's arms. Dan was Puck and Nick Bottom, as well as all three Fairies. He wore a pointy-cloth cap for Puck, and a paper donkey's head out of a Christmas cracker-but it tore if you were not careful-for Bottom. Una was Titania, with a wreath of columbines and a foxglove wand. The Theatre lay in a meadow called the Long Slip. A little mill-stream, carrying water to a mill two or three fields away, bent round one corner of it, and in the middle of the bend lay a large old Fairy Ring of darkened grass, which was the stage. The millstream banks, overgrown with willow, hazel, and guelder-rose, made convenient places to wait in till your turn came; and a grown-up who had seen it said that Shakespeare himself could not have imagined a more suitable setting for his play. They were not, of course, allowed to act on Midsummer Night itself, but they went down after tea on Midsummer Eve, when the shadows were growing, and they took their supper-hard-boiled eggs, Bath Oliver biscuits, and salt in an envelope-with them. Three Cows had been milked and were grazing steadily with a tearing noise that one could hear all down the meadow; and the noise of the Mill at work sounded like bare feet running on hard ground. A cuckoo sat on a gate-post singing his broken June tune, 'cuckoo-cuck', while a busy kingfisher crossed from the mill-stream, to the brook which ran on the other side of the meadow. Everything else was a sort of thick, sleepy stillness smelling of meadow-sweet and dry grass. Their play went beautifully. Dan remembered all his parts-Puck, Bottom, and the three Fairies-and Una never forgot a word of Titania-not even the difficult piece where she tells the Fairies how to feed Bottom with 'apricocks, green figs, and dewberries', and all the lines end in 'ies'. They were both so pleased that they acted it three times over from beginning to end before they sat down in the unthistly centre of the Ring to eat eggs and Bath Olivers. This was when they heard a whistle among the alders on the bank, and they jumped. - Taken from "Puck of Pook's Hill" written by Rudyard Kipling
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Add this copy of Puck of Pook's Hill to cart. $25.63, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2021 by Independently published.
Add this copy of Puck of Pook's Hill to cart. $54.13, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2021 by Independently published.
We are Kipling fans, dyed in the wool, but had never heard of this gem. Two children enact "Midsummer Night's Dream" twice in a row at the foot of "Pook's Hill," on their farm. This conjures "Pook," who is ... Puck, who "jests to Oberon!" From this inspired beginning ensues the summer's adventures for these two children, who in their playful rambles continue to encounter "Pook," or "Puck," the most enchanting (literally) companion ever encountered. In these summer adventures Puck introduces them to figures from English history whose stories, or rather histories, took place on what is now this very farm. The book is a delight, clever and endearing, unexpectedly moving, utterly wonderful.
margaret b
Aug 1, 2011
Specialized fairy story
It's not exactly exciting, but if you like historical events then it is quite interesting. I read it for the life of the Picts having been on Orkney and visited Skara Brae and Maeshowe.