"I have had a dream—past the wit of man to say what dream it truly was!—Man is but an ass, if he go about to expound this dream. Methought I was—there is no man can tell what! Methought I was, and methought I had.—The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was."
We do not think it in the wit or power of Mr. Phelps—under any newer inspiration, to give a deeper, finer meaning to this than he has done. But, if Her Majesty command the play, as a loyal subject, he will doubtless make the essay. In these words, Bottom—as rendered by the actor—is taken away from the ludicrous; he is elevated by the mystery that possesses him, and he affects our more serious sympathies, whilst he forbids our laughter. One of the very, very few precious things of the stage—of this starved time—is an Ass's head, as worn by the manager of merrie Islington.
We hope, at least, the Queen will command that head to be brought—with due solemnity—to Windsor Castle. Let Bottom be made to roar again before Her Majesty, the Prince, the heir-apparent, and all the smaller childhood royalties. Let Bottom be confronted with the picked of the Cabinet—the elect of Privy Councillors. And—as we have Orders of Eagles and Elephants, why not the ingenuous out-speaking significance, the Order of the Ass? As a timid beginning, we have the Thistle—wherefore not the Ass himself?
In which case, the Order established, the Bottom of Sadler's Wells ought rightfully to be the Chancellor thereof.
SOMETHING IN A SIGN.
Romeo would never have asked "What's in a name?" if he had but lived to take a tour in England, and become acquainted with the nomenclature of some of our inns. To us there is hardly a sign in the kingdom which is not thoroughly sign-ificant: and any traveller, we should think, who has his mental eyes about him, may see at a glance outside the way in which he will be taken in. Who, for instance, would expect to enter the jaws, or doors, of a Lion without being bitten, or to get away from an Eagle without considerable bleeding? A little matured, the Lamb becomes decidedly indicative of fleecing; while every Bear, we know, is naturally prone to squeeze as many as he can lay his paws on. Roguery in the Fox is what everybody looks for, and plucking and roasting are, of course, inseparable from a Goose and Gridiron. Nor is the Blue Boar an exception to the rule, for it most aptly symbolises your complexion when you leave it: and no one, we should think, would enter a Green Man, when reminded on the threshold of his verdancy in doing so.
Of all our signs, however, perhaps there is none more suggestive than the Magpie and Stump, which any one may see is merely a contraction for the far more significant Magpie and Stump Up.