I'm convinced you're right on all counts - and indeed, there must be much more to come, for when two such inexhaustible texts lie down together, litter upon litter of dissertations and conference papers will surely follow. There are the travelling field-mice players, for example, whom the Mole attempts to engage for who knows what ulterior purposes of his own, but suffice it to say there are nunneries, and of course, the play is violently interrupted:

`They act plays too, these fellows,' the Mole explained to the Rat. `Make them up all by themselves, and act them afterwards. And very well they do it, too! They gave us a capital one last year, about a field-mouse who was captured at sea by a Barbary corsair, and made to row in a galley; and when he escaped and got home again, his lady-love had gone into a convent. Here, you! You were in it, I remember. Get up and recite a bit.'

The field-mouse addressed got up on his legs, giggled shyly, looked round the room, and remained absolutely tongue-tied. His comrades cheered him on, Mole coaxed and encouraged him, and the Rat went so far as to take him by the shoulders and shake him; but nothing could overcome his stage-fright.

I wouldn't like to speculate as to the Rat's motives for shaking the leading player, but I smell a vole.