Nick Bottom
Encyclopedia
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
who provides comic relief
Comic relief
Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.-Definition:...
throughout the play, and is famously known for getting his head transformed into that of an ass
Donkey
The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E...
by the elusive Puck within the play.
Overview
Nick Bottom is a member of the group within the play commonly known as the Mechanicals,knob a troupe of foolish/clumsy men, all of whom are craftsmen in Athens. The Mechanicals include: Bottom, the weaver; Snout, the tinker; Snug, the joiner; Starveling, the tailor; Flute, the bellows-mender; and Quince, the carpenter. The Mechanicals - sometimes called the Hempen Homespuns - led by Peter QuincePeter Quince
In William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Peter Quince is a carpenter who works in ancient Athens. He is one of the six craftsmen that put on a play for Theseus and Hippolyta at their wedding...
, are rehearsing a play, Pyramus and Thisbe
Pyramus and Thisbe
Pyramus and Thisbe are two characters of Roman mythology, whose love story of ill-fated lovers is also a sentimental romance.The tale is told by Ovid in his Metamorphoses.-Plot:...
(written by Peter Quince) in hopes of performing for Duke Theseus
Theseus
For other uses, see Theseus Theseus was the mythical founder-king of Athens, son of Aethra, and fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, both of whom Aethra had slept with in one night. Theseus was a founder-hero, like Perseus, Cadmus, or Heracles, all of whom battled and overcame foes that were...
on his wedding day and perhaps even being awarded "sixpence a day" for life, quite a handsome reward for these six men. Bottom is given the lead role of Pyramus in the play, and something of a power struggle ensues between Bottom, a charismatic natural leader, and Quince, the somewhat nervous playwright attempting to direct his own play.
Puck (Shakespeare)
Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow, is a character in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream that was based on the ancient figure in English mythology, also called Puck. Puck is a clever and mischievous elf and personifies the trickster or the wise knave...
, a mischievous sprite and minion of Oberon, king of the fairies, happens upon their rehearsal. He decides to have some fun with them, carrying out part of Oberon's orders in the process, and when Bottom (as Pyramus) exits the stage, he transforms his head into a donkey's. When Bottom returns, not knowing of his own transformation, his fellow actors run away from him with Quince screaming, "We are haunted!" Bottom believes they are playing a prank on him, proclaiming, "This is to make an ass of me, to fright me if they could." So he stays in the forest by himself and sings loudly to show them he is not afraid. The Fairy Queen
Fairy Queen
The Fairy Queen was a figure from English folklore who was said to rule the fairies. Fairy Queen may also refer to:*The Faerie Queene, a poem by Edmund Spenser*Fairy Queen , an Indian steam locomotive...
Titania is awakened by Bottom's song. She has been enchanted by a love potion made from the juice of a rare flower, once hit by Cupid's arrow, that her husband, Oberon, King of the Fairies, spread on her eyes in an act of jealous rage. During his enchantment over her, he utters "Wake when some vile thing is near." The first thing she sees when she wakes is the transformed Bottom, and she immediately falls in love with him. She even commands her fairy minions to serve and wait upon him. Later, Oberon finally releases Titania from her enchantment. After being confronted with the reality that her romantic interlude with the transformed Bottom was not just a dream, she is disgusted with the very image of him and also seems very suspicious of how "these things came to pass." After Oberon instructs Puck to return Bottom's head to his human state, which Puck reluctantly does, the fairies leave him sleeping in the woods, nearby the four Athenian lovers, Demetrius
Demetrius
Demetrius, also spelled as Demetrios, Dimitrios, Demitri, and Dimitri , is a male given name.Demetrius and its variations may refer to the following:...
, Helena
Helena (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
Helena is one of the iconic four young lovers in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and is a very desperate woman. She is generally interpreted as being tall, slim and blonde - her best friend Hermia calls her a "painted maypole" during an argument. Although she does not see herself...
, Hermia
Hermia
Hermia is a science park near Tampere University of Technology . Hermia is located in Hervanta, a suburb of Tampere, Finland. Hermia is also acting as a technology centre for its region....
, and Lysander
Lysander (Shakespeare)
Lysander is one of the iconic lovers in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream. A handsome young man of Athens, Lysander is in love with Hermia and plans to run away from her father with her to escape Athenian law and wed. But his plans are disrupted when Oberon decides to have some...
.
Theseus
Theseus
For other uses, see Theseus Theseus was the mythical founder-king of Athens, son of Aethra, and fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, both of whom Aethra had slept with in one night. Theseus was a founder-hero, like Perseus, Cadmus, or Heracles, all of whom battled and overcame foes that were...
ends up choosing Pyramus and Thisbe as the performance for his amusement, now also the wedding day of the young Athenian lovers. The play is poorly written and poorly acted, though obviously performed with a great deal of passion. Bottom performs the famous Pyramus death scene in the play within the play, ironically one of the most comedic moments in the play.
In performance, Bottom, like Horatio in Hamlet is the only major part that can't be doubled, i.e. that can't be played by an actor who also plays another character, since he is present in scenes involving nearly every character.
Analysis
Bottom's discussion of his dream is considered by Ann Thompson to have emulated two passages from Chaucer's The Book of the DuchessThe Book of the Duchess
The Book of the Duchess, also known as The Deth of Blaunche, Encyclopædia Britannica, 1910. Accessed March 11, 2008. is the earliest of Chaucer’s major poems, preceded only by his short poem, "An ABC," and possibly by his translation of The Romaunt of the Rose...
.
Critics have commented on the profound religious implications of Bottom’s speech on his awakening without the ass’s head in act 4 of A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
"[. . .] 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. I
will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this
dream: it shall be called ‘Bottom’s Dream’, because
it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the latter end
of a play, before the Duke. Peradventure, to make it the
more gracious, I shall sing it at her death." (4.1.209–216)
This speech seems to be a comically jumbled evocation of a passage from the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
’s 1 Corinthians 2.9–10:
"The things which
eye hathe not sene, nether eare hath heard,
nether came into man's heart, are, which
God hathe prepared for them that love him.
But God hathe reveiled them unto us by
his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deepe things of God."
Steven Doloff also suggests that Bottom's humorous and foolish performance at the end of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" mimics a passage from the previous chapter of Corinthians:
"For seing the worlde by wisdome knewe
not God in the wisdome of God, it pleased
God by the foolishnes of preaching
to save them that believe:
Seing also that the Jewes require a signe,
and the Grecians seke after wisdome.
But we preache Christ crucified : unto
the Jewes, even a stombling blocke, & unto
the Grecians, foolishnes:
But unto them which are called, bothe
of the Jewes & Grecias we preache Christ,
the power of GOD, and the wisdome of
God.
For the foolishnes of God is wiser the
men [. . .]." (1 Corinthians 1.21–25)
This passage's description of the skeptical reception Christ was given by his Greek audience appears to be alluded to in Bottom's performance. Just as Christ's preaching is regarded as "foolishnes," Bottom's audience perceives his acting (as well as the entirety of the play he is a part of) as completely without value, except for the humor they can find in the actors' hopelessly flawed rendering of their subject matter. Doloff writes that this allusion is especially likely because, in both texts, the skeptical audience of the "foolish" material is composed of Greeks, as the spectators of Bottom et al. are Theseus, the duke of Athens, and his court.
Scholarly Debates
The origin of Bottom's farewell to Quince in Act I, scene ii has become the topic of some disagreement among Shakespeare scholars. Parting with Quince, Bottom instructs his fellow actor to be at the next rehearsal, saying: "Hold or cut bowstrings." The debate is centered on whether this phrase arose from military or civilian life.George Capell is the first to have offered an explanation of the origin of this phrase. He states that it is a proverbial saying and "was born in the days of archery" When an archery contest was planned, `assurance of meeting was given in the words of that phrase'. If an archer did not keep the promised meeting, then the other archers might cut his bowstring, that is, `demolish him for an archer'. From this `particular usage, the phrase had an easy transition among the vulgar to that general application which Bottom makes of it'
However, W.L. Godshalk refutes this theory, stating that no subsequent scholars have been able to confirm Capell's ideas. Godshalk also states that it is unlikely that this was a common civilian phrase, as there are no other examples of this exact form of the phrase in the work of any author besides Shakespeare.
Godshalk further cites the work of George Steevens, who was able to find two vaguely parallel examples in seventeenth-century drama.. In George Chapman's The Ball, Scutilla asks Lady Lucina, `have you devices / To jeer the rest?' Lucina answers, `All the regiment of 'em, or I'll break my bow-strings' (II.ii.127-9). Godshalk argues that the context implied by `regiment' is important, as it implies that the breaking (or cutting) of bowstrings should be seen in terms of military rather than civilian archery. Steeven's other example is from Anthony Brewer's The Covntrie Girle: A Comedie: `Fidler, strike. / I strike you else; -- and cut your begging bowstrings' Godshalk writes that "the first `strike' means `to play upon' the fiddle; the second `strike' may again suggest a military context for the cutting of bowstrings, though any reference to military archery is comic since the `bow' in this case is the fiddler's bow."
Godshalk argues that, just as these examples indicate a military context, this must also be done with Bottom's "hold or cut bow-strings." He further cites Jean Froissart's account of the Battle of Crecy, which supports the military origin of Bottom's line: "When the Genoese felt the arrows piercing through their heads, arms, and breasts, many of them cast down their crossbows, and cut their strings, and resumed discomfited." Archers would cut their bowstrings, thus destroying their weapons, in the midst of a retreat so that the enemy could not use their own instruments against them. It is the equivalent of striking artillery, rendering the equipment useless.
With this understanding, Bottom's phrase can be interpreted as a military expression for "hold your position, or give up and retreat." In the context of the play, Bottom is being comically pretentious, saying: "Be present at the rehearsal, or quit the troupe."
Notable interpretations
Some of the more successful interpretations of Nick Bottom are those of Samuel Phelps
Samuel Phelps
Samuel Phelps was an English actor and theatre manager...
, Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was an English actor and theatre manager.Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre, winning praise for adventurous programming and lavish productions, and starring in many of its productions. In 1899, he helped fund the...
, Ralph Richardson
Ralph Richardson
Sir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, also appeared in several classic films....
, Andrew Blake, as well as Paul Rogers
Paul Rogers (actor)
Paul Rogers is an English actor of film, stage and television.Rogers was born in Plympton, Devon, England, and later trained at the Michael Chekhov Theatre Studio at Dartington Hall and made his film debut in 1932...
. Actors who have played the role on film include Paul Rogers
Paul Rogers (actor)
Paul Rogers is an English actor of film, stage and television.Rogers was born in Plympton, Devon, England, and later trained at the Michael Chekhov Theatre Studio at Dartington Hall and made his film debut in 1932...
, James Cagney
James Cagney
James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...
and Kevin Kline
Kevin Kline
Kevin Delaney Kline is an American theatre, voice, film actor and comedian. He has won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards, and has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards and an Emmy Award.- Early life :...
. In the BBC Television Shakespeare
BBC Television Shakespeare
The BBC Television Shakespeare was a set of television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, produced by the BBC between 1978 and 1985.-Origins:...
version he is played by Brian Glover
Brian Glover
Brian Glover was an English character actor, writer and wrestler. Glover was a professional wrestler, teacher, and finally a film, television and stage actor. He once said, "You play to your strengths in this game. My strength is as a bald-headed, rough-looking Yorkshireman".-Early life:Glover was...
.
Cultural depictions
Bottom has been the subject of several paintings. GermanGermans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
composer Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
has used Bottom twice as an inspiration: in the second sonata which comprises his Royal Winter Music
Royal Winter Music
Royal Winter Music is the name given to two solo works for classical guitar by the German composer Hans Werner Henze.Both works are inspired by characters from Shakespeare. The first work was completed in 1976, and is in six movements...
and in his Eighth Symphony
Symphony No. 8 (Henze)
The Eighth Symphony by the German composer Hans Werner Henze was composed in 1992-93.Using Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream as inspiration, it has a lighter theme than the major work it immediately follows, the Requiem of 1992...
.