First, as a well above average consumer of Bardic affairs, I thought that the letter illustrated was a splendid contribution to the present debate between the RSC and the Globe about how best to cut the Bard so that first the audience understand and enjoy what is going on and second that there is enough left for the game to be worth the candle. That one has shown respect for the original material.
I wonder what my mother who, possibly like the writer of this letter, spent many years teaching Shakespeare to comprehensive (or, more precisely, village college) children, with some success, would have made of it.
Second, some coverage of the Battle of Jutland caught my eye. Coverage which pointed out that while we lost more men and ships than the Germans in the battle, the Germans did not care to renew the fight the next day and we, in some part, went on to win the war in consequence.
I was reminded of the observation in Admiral Bacon's book, noticed at reference 1, that if you wanted to have command of the seas, you had to be prepared to fight for it - and take losses. No more free lunches here than elsewhere.
PS: from the half hour or so that I saw of the BBC's televised version of the 'Midsummer's Night Dream' the other evening, I thought that they failed the second of the above tests. An imaginative and sometimes entertaining effort though - so B for effort and C for attainment as they used to write on my report card at school.
Reference 1: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/the-dover-patrol.html.
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