One of the most endearing and memorable characters in the WS canon is Bottom, NICK BOTTOM, the Athenian weaver and donkey-headed hero in A Midsummer Night's Dream. He is well-known for his two major roles in the play: (1) the long-eared 'lover' of Titania, the Fairy Queen and (2) the leader of the 'rude mechanicals' who put on a play for the forthcoming nuptials of Theseus, Duke of Athens, and his bride, Hippolyta.
In both roles he succeeds in making an ass of himself. (Sorry, I couldn't resist adding that one.)
The first time we meet Bottom is in Act I when he, together with Snug, Flute, Snout et al meet to organise their "most lamentable comedy, and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby." Here, his fellow would-be actor, Quince tells
That will ask some tears in the true performing of it. If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes; I will move storms; I will condole in some measure.
But playing this lead role is not enough for Bottom. He also wants to play Thisby as well. When he is told that he cannot do so, Bottom says he wants to play the lion instead when he "will roar" and make the duke say, "Let him roar again, let him roar again." Quince, the 'play within a play's' producer tells Bottom that he is to play Pyramus and no other part and Bottom, despite him wishing to play all the chief parts, somewhat reluctantly agrees.
We then fast-forward to Act III where Bottom and Co. have met to rehearse their play. All is going more or less according to plan when Puck (aka Robin Goodfellow) a knavish hobgoblin who wants to have some fun at Bottom's expense, slaps an ass's head over the weaver's shoulders. This causes his fellow Thespians to run away in terror. This means that Bottom is now alone on the stage.
Well, not quite. Titania, the Queen of the Fairies, who has fallen out with Oberon, the King of the Fairies, wakes up on stage from her drugged sleep and according to Puck and Oberon's fiendish plan. now falls in love with the first creature she sees. This is the now donkey-headed Bottom. She then assigns her fairy servants to wait on the surprised Bottom whom she now dotes on.
However, A Midsummer Night's Dream being a comedy and all's well that ends well, Oberon takes pity on Titania and has Puck's magic spell removed. As a result Titania wakes up claiming that she dreamed that she was "enamoured of an ass." At the same time Oberon has the ass's head removed from the guileless Bottom who also claims that he had a dream and adds that, "man is but an ass if he go about to expound this dream."
Judi Dench playing Titania
Titania and Bottom by Henry Fuseli
Finally, in the last Act, the 'rude mechanicals perform their play with "tragical mirth" to the delight of Theseus, Hippolyta and their attendants. They obviously please the assembled company as Theseus comments after the final curtain that it was "very notably discharged" before Bottom can add an epilogue.
With reference to Bottom's role in A Midsummer Night's Dream, he is the one character in the play who moves easily between its 'real' world where he rehearses with his fellow actors, and the magic fairy world where he is doted on by Titania. The only thing that seems to worry him is his dream - 'a most rare vision' which he decides should inspire his friend, Peter Quince to "write a ballet of this dream; it shall be called Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom."
In Who's Who in Shakespeare, Peter Quennel and Hamish Johnson say that the part of Bottom has suffered in the theatre as it's all too often been overplayed. They say that it is often played in the spirit of burlesque which does this character less than justice. Bottom may be a simple bumpkin, they add, but he is not stupid.
Next time I will deal with Brutusfrom "Julius Caesar."
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