* * * * *

§ 2. THE GROTESQUE PLOT: BOTTOM AND THE ASS'S HEAD:
WITH THE INTERLUDE OF _PYRAMUS AND THISBE_

"But, for I am a man noght textuel,
I wol noght telle of textes never a del;
I wol go to my tale."--_Chaucer_.

* * * *

II

The second portion of our study will not detain us long, as there are no
literary sources for the "rude mechanicals," and their interlude of Pyramus
and Thisbe is derived from a well-known classical story. Shakespeare draws
them from life, and from his own observation of Warwickshire rustics, as he
drew the two Gobbos, Launce, Christopher Sly, and a host of minor
characters. Doubtless he had met many of the crew of patches, perhaps
beneath the roof of "Marian Hacket, the fat ale-wife of Wincot," where we
may suppose him to have made merry with "Stephen Sly, and old John Naps of
Greece, and Peter Turf, and Henry Pimpernell."

Bottom takes his name from the wooden reel or spool on which thread is
wound; "bottom" simply meaning the base or foundation of the reel. The
names of his comrades have no specific connection with the trades they ply;
but "Starveling" is appropriate by tradition for a tailor--it takes seven
tailors to make a man.