Puck of Pook's HillThe 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 where Nick Bottom the weaver comes out of the bushes with a donkey's head on his shoulder, 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-eared 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 their stage. The mill-stream 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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 18
Page 71
... Sailing round the world , you know . " " Round ? " said Sir Richard . He sat him in the comfortable crotch of an old ash - root on the bank . " How can it be round ? ” " Wasn't it in your books ? " Dan suggested . He had been doing ...
... Sailing round the world , you know . " " Round ? " said Sir Richard . He sat him in the comfortable crotch of an old ash - root on the bank . " How can it be round ? ” " Wasn't it in your books ? " Dan suggested . He had been doing ...
Page 75
... pay him better ransom than he would get price if he sold us to the Moors - as once befell a knight of my acquaintance sailing from Flushing . " Not by my father Guthrum's head , ' said THE KNIGHTS OF THE JOYOUS VENTURE . 75.
... pay him better ransom than he would get price if he sold us to the Moors - as once befell a knight of my acquaintance sailing from Flushing . " Not by my father Guthrum's head , ' said THE KNIGHTS OF THE JOYOUS VENTURE . 75.
Page 76
... sail . ' We " Hereafter all made way for us as we walked about the ship , and the ship was full of wonders . ” " What was she like ? " said Dan . " Long , low , and narrow , bearing one mast with a red sail , and rowed by fifteen oars a ...
... sail . ' We " Hereafter all made way for us as we walked about the ship , and the ship was full of wonders . ” " What was she like ? " said Dan . " Long , low , and narrow , bearing one mast with a red sail , and rowed by fifteen oars a ...
Page 78
... sail , and lay all up along the windward rail , our shields on our backs to break the spray . When it failed , they rowed with long oars ; the Yellow Man sat by the Wise Iron , and Witta steered . At first I feared the great white ...
... sail , and lay all up along the windward rail , our shields on our backs to break the spray . When it failed , they rowed with long oars ; the Yellow Man sat by the Wise Iron , and Witta steered . At first I feared the great white ...
Page 80
... sail out from that land , and south of the shoal lies a Forest which grows in the sea . South and east of the Forest my father came to a place where the men hid gold in their hair ; but all that country , he said , was full of Devils ...
... sail out from that land , and south of the shoal lies a Forest which grows in the sea . South and east of the Forest my father came to a place where the men hid gold in their hair ; but all that country , he said , was full of Devils ...
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
answered Aquila arms asked Barons Bee Boy Borkum Brenzett Brightling Britain brook Cæsar called catapults cried Dallington dark demi-cannon Devil Elias Emperor eyes Father fight friends Fulke Gaul Gilbert Gods gold Golden Hind Gratian Hall hand hang head hear heard heather horse Hugh Jehan Jews John Collins Kadmiel killed King King's knew land laughed liddle looked Manor Marsh Maximus Mithras Mother never Nick Bottom night Norman Normandy North novice old Hobden Parnesius Pertinax Pevensey Pharisees Picts Pook's Hill Puck of Pook's remember rode Rome round rowers Rutilianus sail Santlache Saxon Sebastian Segedunum shield ship shoulder Sir Richard smiled Stavanger sword talk tell thee Theodosius There's Thorn thou thought told tower turned valley voice Volaterrae wait Wall Weland Winged Hats Wise Iron Witta woman wonderful wood word young
Popular passages
Page 134 - Verbenna down to Ostia Hath wasted all the plain ; Astur hath stormed Janiculum, And the stout guards are slain. I wis in all the Senate There was no heart so bold But sore it ached and fast it beat When that ill news was told. Forthwith up rose the consul, Up rose the Fathers all ; In haste they girded up their gowns And hied them to the wall.
Page 237 - Five and twenty ponies Trotting through the dark Brandy for the Parson, 'Baccy for the Clerk; Laces for a lady, letters for a spy, Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!
Page 132 - Cities and Thrones and Powers, Stand in Time's eye, Almost as long as flowers, Which daily die: But, as new buds put forth, To glad new men, Out of the spent and unconsidered Earth, The Cities rise again. This season's Daffodil, She never hears, What change, what chance, what chill, Cut down last year's: But with bold countenance, And knowledge small, Esteems her seven days
Page 16 - FAREWELL, rewards and fairies, Good housewives now may say, For now foul sluts in dairies Do fare as well as they ; And though they sweep their hearths no less Than maids were wont to do, Yet who of late for cleanliness Finds sixpence in her shoe ? Lament, lament old abbeys, The fairies lost command, They did but change priests...
Page 288 - Teach us the Strength that cannot seek, By deed or thought, to hurt the weak; That, under Thee, we may possess Man's strength to comfort man's distress...
Page 133 - The horsemen and the footmen Are pouring in amain From many a stately market-place, From many a fruitful plain, From many a lonely hamlet, Which, hid by beech and pine, Like an eagle's nest, hangs on the crest Of purple Apennine; From lordly Volaterrae Where scowls the far-famed hold Piled by the hands of giants For godlike kings of old...
Page 127 - BESIDE the ungathered rice he lay, His sickle in his hand; His breast was bare, his matted hair Was buried in the sand. Again, in the mist and shadow of sleep, He saw his Native Land.
Page 67 - You forget our mirth, and talk at the tables, The kine in the shed and the horse in the stables To pitch her sides and go over her cables! Then you drive out where the storm-clouds swallow: And the sound of your oar-blades falling hollow Is all we have left through the months to follow. Ah, what is a Woman that you forsake her, And the hearth-fire and the home-acre, To go with the old grey Widow-maker?
Page 184 - ... we blink and drowse, Mithras, also a soldier, keep us true to our vows! Mithras, God of the Sunset, low on the Western main, Thou descending immortal, immortal to rise again! Now when the watch is ended, now when the wine is drawn, Mithras, also a soldier, keep us pure till the dawn! Mithras, God of the Midnight, here where the great bull dies, Look on thy children in darkness. Oh take our sacrifice! Many roads Thou hast fashioned: all of them lead to the Light, Mithras, also a soldier, teach...
Page 10 - When Caesar sailed from Gaul. And see you marks that show and fade, Like shadows on the Downs? O they are the lines the Flint Men made, To guard their wondrous towns. Trackway and Camp and City lost, Salt Marsh where now is corn; Old Wars, old Peace, old Arts that cease, And so was England born! She is not any common Earth, Water or wood or air, But Merlin's Isle of Gramarye, Where you and I will fare.