Bottom
Play
Summary
Nick Bottom is a weaver of Athens and the leader of the mechanicals — the group of workmen rehearsing a play for Theseus's wedding. He is the ultimate Shakespearean clown: loud, self-important, magnificently unaware of his own absurdity, eager to play every part in the play-within-the-play himself, and endlessly confident. When Puck places an ass's head upon him, Bottom accepts his transformation with unperturbed aplomb and is adored by the enchanted Titania with great tenderness. His account of his dream upon waking — scrambling together phrases from St. Paul — is one of Shakespeare's strangest and most touching moments.
Notable Quotations
"I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was." *(IV.i)*
"The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was." *(IV.i)*
"Let me play the lion too." *(I.ii)*
"Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow." *(IV.i)*
Cross-references
- A Midsummer Night's Dream — the play
- Comedies — genre
- character_titania — the Fairy Queen who is enchanted to adore him
- character_puck — who transforms him with the ass's head
- character_oberon — who uses Bottom's transformation as his instrument against Titania
- character_theseus_mnd — before whom the mechanicals perform Pyramus and Thisbe