Miko: annotations

Bottom might be referring to the parable of the mustard seed which is in the Gospel of Matthew. That parable is sometimes used as a call for patience. It may also simply refer to the mustard plant's patience in being eaten.

A glow worm is an insect that glows through bioluminescence. There is no one specific insect called a glow worm. Titania is telling them to light the tapers with the fire that is presumably the source of the glow worm's light.

A taper is a candle. So in this sense, a night-taper is a candle burned for light at nighttime. Titania is telling the fairies to use bee legs (which she assumes are covered with wax) as candles.

the pea pod, i.e. the pod containing the peas

The blossom of the pisum sativum - the pea.

an unripened pea pod

Pronounced “mote”. Shakespeare may have meant mote - the specks of dust seen in a beam of light - instead of the insect that resembles a butterfly. The Folger edition of the play spells the name “Mote”.

Titania could mean one or both of two things with this word. 1) an outside space over-canopied with trees and shrubs 2) a woman's bedroom.

a traditional name for a hen

sheds