Miko: annotations

In the First Folio, Egeus is assigned many of the lines that are spoken by Philostrate in the First Quarto. Because those lines concern the festivities, it makes more sense to assign them to Philostrate, who is Master of the Revels.

According to Plutarch, Theseus and Hercules were cousins. In most Greek mythology, however, they were not actually related.

astonishing

Hippolyta points out that because the lovers' stories agree with each other, there might be some truth to the stories.

In another racist comparison, Theseus marvels that a lover can see beauty in someone with a dark complexion. Helen is Helen of Troy, the mythical most beautiful woman in the world. Egypt refers to a gypsy.

fantastical tales

love or sexual desire

In Elizabethan times, craftsmen earned about sixpence a day. A sixpence was worth six pennies.

In this stage direction from the First Quarto, somebody seems to have forgotten that Flute and Thisbe are the same person.

Strings to tie on false beards. Remember that in Act I, Scene 2, Bottom ponders what color beard he should wear.