Miko: annotations

Spider webs were a traditional treatment for cuts.

In some productions Titania laughs after this sentence. Doing so clarifies why Bottom says that he jokes (“gleeks”) on occasion.

joke

In these last few lines, Bottom stops singing and questions the words he just sang.

Who would take the trouble to disagree with a bird?

Who would match wits with a fool?

Hearing the song of the cuckoo supposedly meant that the listener was a cuckold - a man whose wife is unfaithful. The word “cuckold” comes from the word “cuckoo”, with various explanations of how that evolution occurred.

The cuckoo has a very plain, repetitive song - “cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo...”. The type of cuckoo that visits England is grey. A plainsong is a type of liturgical song involving chants.

Bottom might be referring to the wren's short wings and tail. Many modern editions say that Bottom refers to the wren having a high pitched song - one definition of “quill” is “musical pipe”. Both meanings seem reasonable.

The thrush. The thrush is a large family of birds, which actually includes the common blackbird mentioned in the previous line. Bottom probably more specifically refers to the song thrush. The song thrush is known for repeating the same song phrases over and over, so that might be what Bottom means when he says “his note so true”.