Did Shakespeare write "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in a Welsh cave?

Did Shakespeare write
"A Midsummer Night's Dream"
in a Welsh cave?

. . .
An intriguing story...
little known.

. . .

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Powys Literary Links - William Shakespeare

A great deal of William Shakespeare's life is shrouded in mystery. In the parishes of Llandefalle and Bronllys, Breconshire legend has supplied the answer to one of the questions surrounding the playwright. Here, it is firmly believed that Shakespeare stayed at Trebarried around 1595.

Information provided by Powys County Archives:

The original house at Trebarried was the mansion of Bois, Lord of Trebois. All that can be seen of this are the remains of a moat in the field to the east of the house.

The present house, which Theophilus Jones says "rose from the ruins, and perhaps was partly composed of the materials of the old house, though not built on the same foundation" was built in the mid seventeenth century for William Parry or William ap Harry Vaughan, a descendent of Roger Vaughan of Bronllys (sometimes 'of Talgarth'), himself a natural son Sir Roger Vaughan of Tretower.

Whilst staying at Trebarried, Shakespeare is said to have visited the picturesque Clydach Gorge, near Abergavenny. Clydach was part of Breconshire at that time. Here, in a part of the gorge called the Fairy Glen, he is supposed to have written 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', which he intended for the celebrations at the wedding of a friend.

There is a cave in the gorge still called 'Shakespeare's Cave', where he sat, so the story goes, to write his fantasy of fairies, star-crossed lovers and 'rude mechanicals'. The cave is one of many in the area explored by cavers.

In the sixteenth century, the gorge was wild and largely unspoilt, though evidence has been found that it was the site of the earliest iron workings in the world. Later, the Industrial Revolution was to bring more extensive exploitation of the natural resources lying hidden beneath the gorge, as can be seen from the 1880 Ordnance Survey map.

We shall probably never really know whether Shakespeare visited Trebarried and Clydach, or where he wrote 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', but it does no harm for us to indulge in a little fantasy, and there is the compelling evidence of the name of that cave...

Information provided by Powys County Archives.

your comments

George Wood from Chatham This was very good and very helpful. I will recomend this to a few more people Fri Nov 24 15:42:06 2006

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/mid/sites/bookshelf/pages/shakespeare.shtml

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We found 246 results for photos matching Clydach.

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=clydach&page=2

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We found 58 results for photos matching Clydach and Gorge.

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=clydach+gorge&m=text

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Shakespeare in Wales

There will be posts on the following topics...


* A summing up
* First thoughts on the Powys ideas
* Old Gwernyfed Manor House
* Rhydspence at Whitney
* Shakespeare's Cave
* Trebarried in Wales
* Vaughan of Golden Grove
* Vaughan Whitney marriage
* Williams of Gwernyfed