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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 3Scene 1
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“plainsong cuckoo grey”
Cultural Context
Act 3,
Scene 1
Lines 114-121

An explanation of Bottom’s reference to the cuckoo bird in Act 3, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Bottom

I see their knavery. This is to make an ass of me,
to fright me if they could. But I will not stir from this
place, do what they can. I will walk up and down here,
and I will sing that they shall hear I am not afraid.
[Sings]
The ousel cock so black of hue,
With orange-tawny bill;
The throstle with his note so true,
The wren with little quill.

The cuckoo bird is so named because of the sound it makes. Although cuckoos pair off into couples, the female sometimes lays her eggs in the nest of some other male than her partner. For this reason the word "cuckold" refers to a man whose wife is cheating on him. According to the lyrics of Bottom’s song, many men think that the bird is calling them a cuckold, but they dare not deny it, fearing that the cuckoo bird knows something they don't.

(Black-billed Cuckoo, Coccyzus erythropthalmus by John James Audubon, 1830)