Miko: annotations

A play in preparation. I.e., they're working toward performing a play.

The Oxford English Dictionary says that Bottom again uses the wrong words; that he meant “wild beast”. The Arden Shakespeare, however, suggests that Bottom is referring to the griffin, a fierce mythological flying creature.

In weaving terminology of the day, the “bottom” was the spool on which thread or yarn was wound.

The roles of parents do not actually appear in the play as it is performed in Act V.

Bottom lists various materials used for building walls.

Robin is calling them low-class or bumpkins.

Some texts change “or” to “and” because the phrase “let him hold his fingers thus” does not seem to be in opposition to the previous directions about plaster, etc. The First Quarto and the First Folio both have “or”.

The man in the moon with sticks and a dog is a figure in several folkloric traditions. The common origin of those stories is that many people see in the moon the figure of a man carrying sticks and accompanied by his dog.

Portia speculates (probably not seriously) that the prince was conceived as the result of an illicit affair between his mother and someone who makes horse shoes.

special quality