Linking the idea of schools using expurgated editions of literature and Hamlet, above, I "did" Hamlet at A Level, and only discovered when I bought my own, university level, annotated copy, that there was something rude about what was said when Hamlet asked if he could lay his head in Ophelia's lap, and she replied that she did not know he meant country matters. Being somewhat shielded from basic vocabulary, I was able to correctly interpret the phrase as meaning sex by thinking of farmers' daughters observing animals in fields, without spotting the pun at all.

My A Level teacher would have had fits had this been exposed in class. She had enough trouble explaining the difference between "sensual" and "sensuous", and why one applied to Keats, and the other didn't. Byron was waved away with relief as she didn't have to teach him, except to point out with distaste that the word which didn't apply to Keats did apply to him.

Penny