“And after winter folweth grene May”
― Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde

“The month of May has come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit”
— Thomas Malory

“Forgive me if, in friendship’s way,
I offer thee a wreath of May…
Nourished by the dews of heaven…”
– John Clare

“As full of spirit as the month of May”
— William Shakespeare

“May is the month of expectation, the month of wishes, the month of hope”
— Emily Brontë

“Among the changing months, May stands confest the sweetest, and in fairest colours dressed”
— James Thomson

“I thought that spring must last forevermore; for I was young and loved, and it was May”
— Vera Brittain

“So closely, in their profusion, do they crowd together that lovers would find it as hard to count the kisses exchanged in an hour as to count the flowers in a meadow in May”
— Marcel Proust

“At last came the golden month of the wild folk — honey-sweet May, when the birds come back, and the flowers come out, and the air is full of the sunrise scents and songs of the dawning year”
— Samuel Scoville Jr

“May bursts, the rainbow of the months, sent as a sign — a promise of fruition”
– The National Magazine, May 1899

“But he calls down a blessing on the blossom of the may,
Because it comes in beauty, and in beauty blows away”
― WB Yeats

“Look, look: a May-mess, like on orchard boughs!”
– Gerard Manley Hopkins

“Most people liked it best in the early spring, when the woods down to the river seemed to shift almost before one’s eyes from snowdrop white to daffodil yellow to the shimmer of bluebells … I shall always remember it with the profoundest gratitude, though, as it was that May, that last May, in the last of my old summers”
― Jan Morris, Conundrum

“And a bird overhead sang Follow,
And a bird to the right sang Here;
And the arch of the leaves was hollow,
And the meaning of May was clear”
― Algernon Charles Swinburne

And now for number eight!

DORCHESTER has a record-breaking history of community plays … and now the work is starting on number eight. What will its theme be?

The Dorchester community play phenomenon began in 1985 with Entertaining Strangers. In the ensuing 40 years, local residents, with professional writers including Ann Jellicoe, David Edgar and Stephanie Dale, have created an amazing legacy of seven original plays that explore life and dramatic events in Dorchester over the centuries.

Now the community play association is at the early stages of developing a new community play, and ideas are already starting to spark.

Subjects for research include:
The history of Dorchester Prison – uncovering the stories, people, and secrets held within its walls from when it was built in 1795 to when it closed in 2013;
Myths and legends of Dorchester – diving into local folklore, mystery and the unexpected, including the Singing Marys on Bincombe Bumps, the Woodwose in Puddletown woods and the legend of the Mare and her Colts near Kingston Russell;
Past, present and future – how the area has evolved over time, and how it might continue to change, particularly in response to climate change.

The community play team would love to hear ideas from local people as the project develops – www.dorchestercommunityplay.co.uk