In addition to the comedy resulting from the irrational behavior of the lovers, Shakespeare adds some obvious clowning from a group of actors who play the role of artisans. During the Renaissance an artisan was a skilled worker, such as a tailor or a carpenter. Many of these skilled workers could not read or write at all, and most lacked much education beyond that which was needed to function in their choice of occupations. Many artisans were criticized and ridiculed – especially by writers of comedy. And Shakespeare joins in this type of humor by having all of the artisans played by clowns. Unlike a circus clown, the clowns in Renaissance comedy were usually portrayed as rustic figures – men from the country who understood English imprecisely and who spoke English badly. The word play of clowns usually resulted from using a word incorrectly or by saying the opposite of what was intended. Some of these clowns, then, mangle the English language beyond understanding. Part of the humor in the artisan scenes, though, is that the artisans understand one another perfectly despite the blunders in speech.
In Shakespeare’s comedy there are six artisans. These six craftsmen have heard about the upcoming wedding of Duke Theseus; and they decide to honor their duke by preparing a play that, they hope, will be selected as entertainment on the duke’s wedding day. The artisans, however, have no real knowledge about drama or performance; and, so, the play that they will present will not be very good. Shakespeare, then, presents a play within a play – the artisan’s short performance is played within the larger play of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The shorter inner play offers more opportunity for humor and broad comedy to complement the irrational humor of the lovers. Moreover, the inner play offers Shakespeare the opportunity to present criticism (through metatheater) about bad acting and bad performances. The inner play thus serves as a parody of some of the inferior theatrical productions that were sometimes performed during Shakespeare’s own time.
Although the character of Quince the carpenter serves as the director of the play within a play, the character of Bottom the weaver is clearly the most prominent of these characters and the leader of the group. Moreover, he is also the biggest buffoon of the group. Thus, the best of the clowns in Shakespeare’s troupe would take on the role of Bottom.
Quince informs the other artisans that the title of the play that they will perform is The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe. This title itself is a parody of overblown or wordy titles that often appeared in the Renaissance. But the title also shows the artisans’ incorrect use of English. The word lamentable means sad, sorrowful, or mournful. But a comedy is not sad or sorrowful. Quince should have said tragedy, not comedy. Such a basic blunder reveals the incompetence of the artisans. Of course, the story of Pyramus and Thisbe is a tragedy. Not unlike Romeo and Juliet, Pyramus and Thisbe are young lovers whose parents forbid them from being together. Their attempt to get together results in their own tragic deaths. The story of Pyramus and Thisbe was first written by the Classical Roman writer Ovid in his book entitled Metamorphoses.
Bottom responds to the title by asserting that the play is “a very good piece of work” (11). However, as the following lines indicate, Bottom has never read the story and knows nothing about it. Bottom is always ready to express an opinion on a topic that he knows nothing about. In short, he is an ass (a vain or conceited person). Shakespeare plays on this quality of the character, for later in the play Bottom is magically transformed into an ass (an animal similar to a donkey). Yet, although Bottom is an ass, he is a likeable one. He provides a great deal of humor in the play and keeps the audience laughing.
Bottom’s lack of knowledge about the Pyramus and Thisbe story becomes evident when he states that it is a “merry” or joyous story (line 11) and when he asks Quince whether Pyramus is a “lover or a tyrant” (17). After Quince tells Bottom that Pyramus is a tragic lover, Bottom asserts that he will move the audience to tears when he performs the role because he is such a fine actor. Actually, Bottom is partially right: he will move the audience to tears, but they will be tears of laughter.
Bottom goes on to state that he would rather play the role of a tyrannical character, like Hercules (who was often portrayed as a loud, ranting character in some early plays). Bottom follows his assertion by then badly repeating some lines of bad poetry to show his acting skills (or, to be more precise, his lack of acting skills).
Apparently there were more than a few bad actors in Shakespeare’s time, and such performers overacted their parts and ruined the lines that they were given. Bottom is a parody of such bad actors. Years later, in his tragedy of Hamlet, Shakespeare’s protagonist, Prince Hamlet of Denmark, advises an actor not to exaggerate his lines:
O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious, periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o’erdoing Termagant. It out-Herods Herod. Pray you avoid it.
(Hamlet III, 2: 7-13)
The Biblical character of Herod was a tyrant who was usually portrayed as a loud, obnoxious, raging character on stage. Shakespeare speaks through the character of Prince Hamlet to criticize and condemn such bad actors. Probably more than once in his career Shakespeare dreamt of whipping the bad actors who so badly messed up his lines.
With the character of Bottom, though, the bad acting is all part of the fun. Most of Shakespeare’s audience would have recognized that Bottom represents bad actors (or perhaps one particular bad actor of the time) and would have found his role all the more humorous because of that.
During the rest of the scene, Quince assigns the other parts of the play to the other artisans. However, each time he does so, Bottom interrupts him and declares that he should play that other part as well. Bottom truly is a conceited ass who truly believes that only he is capable of acting all of the parts in the play.
After Quince assigns the parts to the various artisans, he tells them to meet the following night in the forest outside Athens so that they can practice in secret. But, of course, Quince does not know that Hermia and Lysander will also be out that same night in the same part of the forest. The artisans will not just be involved in a subplot of the comedy. Rather, they will also become involved in the main plot as well.