Nick Bottom - Scholarly Debates

Scholarly Debates

The origin of Bottom's farewell to Quince in Act I, scene ii has become the topic of some disagreement among Shakespeare scholars. Parting with Quince, Bottom instructs his fellow actor to be at the next rehearsal, saying: "Hold or cut bowstrings." The debate is centered on whether this phrase arose from military or civilian life.

George Capell is the first to have offered an explanation of the origin of this phrase. He states that it is a proverbial saying and "was born in the days of archery" When an archery contest was planned, `assurance of meeting was given in the words of that phrase'. If an archer did not keep the promised meeting, then the other archers might cut his bowstring, that is, `demolish him for an archer'. From this `particular usage, the phrase had an easy transition among the vulgar to that general application which Bottom makes of it'

However, W.L. Godshalk refutes this theory, stating that no subsequent scholars have been able to confirm Capell's ideas. Godshalk also states that it is unlikely that this was a common civilian phrase, as there are no other examples of this exact form of the phrase in the work of any author besides Shakespeare.

Godshalk further cites the work of George Steevens, who was able to find two vaguely parallel examples in seventeenth-century drama. In George Chapman's The Ball, Scutilla asks Lady Lucina, `have you devices / To jeer the rest?' Lucina answers, `All the regiment of 'em, or I'll break my bow-strings' (II.ii.127-9). Godshalk argues that the context implied by `regiment' is important, as it implies that the breaking (or cutting) of bowstrings should be seen in terms of military rather than civilian archery. Steeven's other example is from Anthony Brewer's The Covntrie Girle: A Comedie: `Fidler, strike. / I strike you else; -- and cut your begging bowstrings' Godshalk writes that "the first `strike' means `to play upon' the fiddle; the second `strike' may again suggest a military context for the cutting of bowstrings, though any reference to military archery is comic since the `bow' in this case is the fiddler's bow."

Godshalk argues that, just as these examples indicate a military context, this must also be done with Bottom's "hold or cut bow-strings." He further cites Jean Froissart's account of the Battle of Crecy, which supports the military origin of Bottom's line: "When the Genoese felt the arrows piercing through their heads, arms, and breasts, many of them cast down their crossbows, and cut their strings, and resumed discomfited." Archers would cut their bowstrings, thus destroying their weapons, in the midst of a retreat so that the enemy could not use their own instruments against them. It is the equivalent of striking artillery, rendering the equipment useless. With this understanding, Bottom's phrase can be interpreted as a military expression for "hold your position, or give up and retreat." In the context of the play, Bottom is being comically pretentious, saying: "Be present at the rehearsal, or quit the troupe."