"_The_ li. _Riddle_.--My lovers will I am content for to fulfill; Within this rime his name is framed; Tell me then how he is named? _Solution._--His name is William; for in the first line is _will_, and in the beginning of the second line is _I am_, and then put them both together, and it maketh _William_. _The_ liv. _Riddle_.--How many calves tailes will reach to the skye? _Solution._--One, if it be long enough. _The_ lxv. _Riddle_.--What is that, round as a ball, Longer than Pauls steeple, weather-cocke, and all? _Solution._--It is a round bottome of thred when it is unwound. _The_ lxvii. _Riddle_.--What is that, that goeth thorow the wood, and toucheth never a twig? _Solution._--It is the blast of a horne, or any other noyse." A _bottom_ of thread was a ball of it. The word occurs in _The Taming of the Shrew_ (iv. 3. 138), where Grumio says, in the dialogue with the Tailor: "Master, if ever I said loose-bodied gown, sew me in the skirts of it, and beat me to death with a bottom of brown thread; I said a gown." The verb is used in _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_ (iii. 2. 53):-- "Therefore, as you unwind her love from him, Lest it should ravel and be good to none, You must provide to bottom it on me." This old meaning of _bottom_ doubtless suggested the name of Bottom the Weaver in the _Midsummer-Night's Dream_. STORY-TELLING. If books were scarce in the homes of the common people when Shakespeare was a boy, there was no lack of oral tales, legends, and folk-lore for the entertainment of the family of a winter evening. The store of this unwritten history and fiction was inexhaustible. In Milton's _L'Allegro_ we have a pleasant picture of a rustic group listening to fairy stories round the evening fire:-- "Then to the spicy nut-brown ale, With stories told of many a feat, How fairy Mab the junkets eat. She was pinch'd and pull'd, she said, And he, by Friar's lantern led, Tells how the drudging goblin sweat To earn his cream-bowl duly set, When in one night, ere glimpse of morn, His shadowy flail hath thresh'd the corn That ten day-laborers could not end; Then lies him down the lubber fiend, And, stretch'd out all the chimney's length, Basks at the fire his hairy strength, And crop-full out of doors he flings Ere the first cock his matin rings. Thus done the tales, to bed they creep, By whispering winds soon lull'd asleep." Of "fairy Mab" we have a graphic description from the merry Mercutio in _Romeo and Juliet_ (i. 4. 53-94); and the "drudging goblin," or Robin Goodfellow, is the Puck of the _Midsummer-Night's Dream_, to whom the Fairy says (ii. 1. 40):--