IV - MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. BOTTOM, THE WEAVER
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
Summary
“Some men are born with a silver spoon in their mouths, and others with a wooden ladle.”
—Ancient Proverb.“Then did the sun on dunghill shine.”
—Ancient Pistol.It has often been remarked that it is impossible to play the enchanted scenes of Bottom with any effect. In reading the poem we idealize the ass-head; we can conceive that it represents in some grotesque sort the various passions and emotions of its wearer; that it assumes a character of dull jocosity, or duller sapience, in his conversations with Titania and the fairies; and when calling for the assistance of Messrs. Peas-blossom and Mustard-seed to scratch his head, or of the Queen to procure him a peck of provender or a bottle of hay, it expresses some puzzled wonder of the new sensations its wearer must experience in tinglings never felt before, and cravings for food until then unsuited to his appetite. But on the stage this is impossible. As the manager cannot procure for his fairies representatives of such tiny dimensions as to be in danger of being overflown by the bursting of the honey-bag of an humble-bee, so it is impossible that the art of the property-man can furnish Bottom with an ass-head capable of expressing the mixed feelings of humanity and asinity which actuate the metamorphosed weaver. It is but a pasteboard head, and that is all.
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- Information
- Shakespeare PapersPictures Grave and Gay, pp. 116 - 142Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1859