Quote 4
QUINCE
Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art
translated.
ExitBOTTOM
I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of
me, (3.1.120-123)
After Puck has "translated" Bottom's head into that of an ass, Bottom becomes the butt of Shakespeare's biggest joke about transformation. Clueless that he's been transformed, Bottom declares that his friends have run away from him in fear because they're trying to "make an ass" out of him (3.1.16). Shakespeare probably got the idea from Apuleius's Golden Ass, a hilarious and ancient story about a guy who's turned into a donkey. Bottom's conversion is also key to the play's theme of transformation, a concept Shakespeare borrowed from Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Quote 5
QUINCE
Marry, our play is "The most lamentable comedy and most
cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe."BOTTOM
A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a merry. (1.2.11-15)
Bottom's misspeakings and misunderstandings are a running joke in the play, but sometimes from items like this, you get the sense that he is really oblivious. The Mechanicals are usually the butt of the joke, but they seem to be happily having their own fun here. In some cases foolishness can be a source of enjoyment, at least when paired with ignorance.