Miko: annotations

Most editions note this phrase as meaning simply “a bad thing for me”. Some editions, however, say that Bottom thinks he would be risking his life. How serious he is about that concern is speculation.

Some scholars have suggested that Bottom's concern is an allusion to an event that had happened recently at the coronation of Prince Henry of Scotland. A carriage was supposed to be drawn by a lion, but it was decided that it was too dangerous.

Bottom means to say “effect”. Bottom frequently chooses the wrong words for his intent.

wearing clothes made from hemp

Dressing room. “Tiring” is a shortened form of “attiring”.

“On the dot” or “exactly”.

As it would be pronounced by a modern speaker, this line doesn't work as iambic pentameter or as a rhyme with the previous line. Some sources suggest that “Either” should be pronounced with one syllable. Other sources suggest that “immediately” should have a long “y”. Taking both of these suggestions, the line could be pronounced like this: e'er DEATH or YOU i'll FIND imMEEDyetLIE.

Modern texts split these words up into various numbers of sentences. The First Quarto reads “Lysander, Lord, What, out of hearing, gon?” The Folger edition reads “Lysander, lord! What, out of hearing? Gone?” and so on with different arrangements. The Yale edition suggests that “Lord” is an exclamation like “Good lord”.

In this case, “eat” is the past tense, where today we would say “ate”. It was pronounced “et”.

Too much sweet food gives you a stomachache.