A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM 5.1

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A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM 5.1

Athens. The palace of THESEUS.

[Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, Lords and

Attendants]

HIPPOLYTA 'Tis strange my Theseus, that these

lovers speak of.

THESEUS More strange than true: I never may believe

These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.

Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, 5

Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend

More than cool reason ever comprehends.

The lunatic, the lover and the poet

Are of imagination all compact:

One sees more devils than vast hell can hold, 10

That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,

Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:

The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling,

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;

And as imagination bodies forth 15

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen

Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing

A local habitation and a name.

Such tricks hath strong imagination,

That if it would but apprehend some joy, 20

It comprehends some bringer of that joy;

Or in the night, imagining some fear,

How easy is a bush supposed a bear!

HIPPOLYTA But all the story of the night told over,

And all their minds transfigured so together, 25

More witnesseth than fancy's images

And grows to something of great constancy;

But, howsoever, strange and admirable.

THESEUS Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.

[Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and HELENA]

Joy, gentle friends! joy and fresh days of love 30

Accompany your hearts!

LYSANDER More than to us

Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed!

THESEUS Come now; what masques, what dances shall we have,

To wear away this long age of three hours 35

Between our after-supper and bed-time?

Where is our usual manager of mirth?

What revels are in hand? Is there no play,

To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?

Call Philostrate. 40

PHILOSTRATE Here, mighty Theseus.

THESEUS Say, what abridgement have you for this evening?

What masque? what music? How shall we beguile

The lazy time, if not with some delight?

PHILOSTRATE There is a brief how many sports are ripe:

Make choice of which your highness will see first. 45

[Giving a paper]

THESEUS [Reads] 'The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung

By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.'

We'll none of that: that have I told my love,

In glory of my kinsman Hercules.

[Reads]

'The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals, 50

Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.'

That is an old device; and it was play'd

When I from Thebes came last a conqueror.

[Reads]

'The thrice three Muses mourning for the death

Of Learning, late deceased in beggary.' 55

That is some satire, keen and critical,

Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony.

[Reads]

'A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus

And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.'

Merry and tragical! tedious and brief! 60

That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow.

How shall we find the concord of this discord?

PHILOSTRATE A play there is, my lord, some ten words long,

Which is as brief as I have known a play;

But by ten words, my lord, it is too long, 65

Which makes it tedious; for in all the play

There is not one word apt, one player fitted:

And tragical, my noble lord, it is;

For Pyramus therein doth kill himself.

Which, when I saw rehearsed, I must confess, 70

Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears

The passion of loud laughter never shed.

THESEUS What are they that do play it?

PHILOSTRATE Hard-handed men that work in Athens here,

Which never labour'd in their minds till now, 75

And now have toil'd their unbreathed memories

With this same play, against your nuptial.

THESEUS And we will hear it.

PHILOSTRATE No, my noble lord;

It is not for you: I have heard it over, 80

And it is nothing, nothing in the world;

Unless you can find sport in their intents,

Extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain,

To do you service.

THESEUS I will hear that play;

For never anything can be amiss, 85

When simpleness and duty tender it.

Go, bring them in: and take your places, ladies.

[Exit PHILOSTRATE]

HIPPOLYTA I love not to see wretchedness o'er charged

And duty in his service perishing.

THESEUS Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing. 90

HIPPOLYTA He says they can do nothing in this kind.

THESEUS The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing.

Our sport shall be to take what they mistake:

And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect

Takes it in might, not merit. 95

Where I have come, great clerks have purposed

To greet me with premeditated welcomes;

Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,

Make periods in the midst of sentences,

Throttle their practised accent in their fears 100

And in conclusion dumbly have broke off,

Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet,

Out of this silence yet I pick'd a welcome;

And in the modesty of fearful duty

I read as much as from the rattling tongue 105

Of saucy and audacious eloquence.

Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity

In least speak most, to my capacity.

[Re-enter PHILOSTRATE]

PHILOSTRATE So please your grace, the Prologue is address'd.

THESEUS Let him approach. 110

[Flourish of trumpets]

[Enter QUINCE for the Prologue]

Prologue If we offend, it is with our good will.

That you should think, we come not to offend,

But with good will. To show our simple skill,

That is the true beginning of our end.

Consider then we come but in despite. 115

We do not come as minding to contest you,

Our true intent is. All for your delight

We are not here. That you should here repent you,

The actors are at hand and by their show

You shall know all that you are like to know. 120

THESEUS This fellow doth not stand upon points.

LYSANDER He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he knows

not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not

enough to speak, but to speak true.

HIPPOLYTA Indeed he hath played on his prologue like a child 125

on a recorder; a sound, but not in government.

THESEUS His speech, was like a tangled chain; nothing

impaired, but all disordered. Who is next?

[Enter Pyramus and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine, and Lion]

Prologue Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show;

But wonder on, till truth make all things plain. 130

This man is Pyramus, if you would know;

This beauteous lady Thisby is certain.

This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present

Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers sunder;

And through Wall's chink, poor souls, they are content 135

To whisper. At the which let no man wonder.

This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn,

Presenteth Moonshine; for, if you will know,

By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn

To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo. 140

This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name,

The trusty Thisby, coming first by night,

Did scare away, or rather did affright;

And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall,

Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain. 145

Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall,

And finds his trusty Thisby's mantle slain:

Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,

He bravely broach'd is boiling bloody breast;

And Thisby, tarrying in mulberry shade, 150

His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest,

Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain

At large discourse, while here they do remain.

[Exeunt Prologue, Thisbe, Lion, and Moonshine]

THESEUS I wonder if the lion be to speak.

DEMETRIUS No wonder, my lord: one lion may, when many asses do. 155

Wall In this same interlude it doth befall

That I, one Snout by name, present a wall;

And such a wall, as I would have you think,

That had in it a crannied hole or chink,

Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby, 160

Did whisper often very secretly.

This loam, this rough-cast and this stone doth show

That I am that same wall; the truth is so:

And this the cranny is, right and sinister,

Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper. 165

THESEUS Would you desire lime and hair to speak better?

DEMETRIUS It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard

discourse, my lord.

[Enter Pyramus]

THESEUS Pyramus draws near the wall: silence!

Pyramus O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so black! 170

O night, which ever art when day is not!

O night, O night! alack, alack, alack,

I fear my Thisby's promise is forgot!

And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,

That stand'st between her father's ground and mine! 175

Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,

Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne!

[Wall holds up his fingers]

Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for this!

But what see I? No Thisby do I see.

O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss! 180

Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me!

THESEUS The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again.

Pyramus No, in truth, sir, he should not. 'Deceiving me'

is Thisby's cue: she is to enter now, and I am to

spy her through the wall. You shall see, it will 185

fall pat as I told you. Yonder she comes.

[Enter Thisbe]

Thisbe O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans,

For parting my fair Pyramus and me!

My cherry lips have often kiss'd thy stones,

Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee. 190

Pyramus I see a voice: now will I to the chink,

To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face. Thisby!

Thisbe My love thou art, my love I think.

Pyramus Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace;

And, like Limander, am I trusty still. 195

Thisbe And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill.

Pyramus Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.

Thisbe As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.

Pyramus O kiss me through the hole of this vile wall!

Thisbe I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all. 200

Pyramus Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway?

Thisbe 'Tide life, 'tide death, I come without delay.

[Exeunt Pyramus and Thisbe]

Wall Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so;

And, being done, thus Wall away doth go.

[Exit]

THESEUS Now is the mural down between the two neighbours. 205

DEMETRIUS No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to hear

without warning.

HIPPOLYTA This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.

THESEUS The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst

are no worse, if imagination amend them. 210

HIPPOLYTA It must be your imagination then, and not theirs.

THESEUS If we imagine no worse of them than they of

themselves, they may pass for excellent men. Here

come two noble beasts in, a man and a lion.

[Enter Lion and Moonshine]

Lion You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear 215

The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,

May now perchance both quake and tremble here,

When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar.

Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am

A lion-fell, nor else no lion's dam; 220

For, if I should as lion come in strife

Into this place, 'twere pity on my life.

THESEUS A very gentle beast, of a good conscience.

DEMETRIUS The very best at a beast, my lord, that e'er I saw.

LYSANDER This lion is a very fox for his valour. 225

THESEUS True; and a goose for his discretion.

DEMETRIUS Not so, my lord; for his valour cannot carry his

discretion; and the fox carries the goose.

THESEUS His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his valour;

for the goose carries not the fox. It is well: 230

leave it to his discretion, and let us listen to the moon.

Moonshine This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;--

DEMETRIUS He should have worn the horns on his head.

THESEUS He is no crescent, and his horns are

invisible within the circumference. 235

Moonshine This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;

Myself the man i' the moon do seem to be.

THESEUS This is the greatest error of all the rest: the man

should be put into the lanthorn. How is it else the

man i' the moon? 240

DEMETRIUS He dares not come there for the candle; for, you

see, it is already in snuff.

HIPPOLYTA I am aweary of this moon: would he would change!

THESEUS It appears, by his small light of discretion, that

he is in the wane; but yet, in courtesy, in all 245

reason, we must stay the time.

LYSANDER Proceed, Moon.

Moonshine All that I have to say, is, to tell you that the

lanthorn is the moon; I, the man in the moon; this

thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog. 250

DEMETRIUS Why, all these should be in the lanthorn; for all

these are in the moon. But, silence! here comes Thisbe.

[Enter Thisbe]

Thisbe This is old Ninny's tomb. Where is my love?

Lion [Roaring] Oh--

[Thisbe runs off]

DEMETRIUS Well roared, Lion. 255

THESEUS Well run, Thisbe.

HIPPOLYTA Well shone, Moon. Truly, the moon shines with a

good grace.

[The Lion shakes Thisbe's mantle, and exit]

THESEUS Well moused, Lion.

LYSANDER And so the lion vanished. 260

DEMETRIUS And then came Pyramus.

[Enter Pyramus]

Pyramus Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams;

I thank thee, Moon, for shining now so bright;

For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams,

I trust to take of truest Thisby sight. 265

But stay, O spite!

But mark, poor knight,

What dreadful dole is here!

Eyes, do you see?

How can it be? 270

O dainty duck! O dear!

Thy mantle good,

What, stain'd with blood!

Approach, ye Furies fell!

O Fates, come, come, 275

Cut thread and thrum;

Quail, crush, conclude, and quell!

THESEUS This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would

go near to make a man look sad.

HIPPOLYTA Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man. 280

Pyramus O wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame?

Since lion vile hath here deflower'd my dear:

Which is--no, no--which was the fairest dame

That lived, that loved, that liked, that look'd

with cheer. 285

Come, tears, confound;

Out, sword, and wound

The pap of Pyramus;

Ay, that left pap,

Where heart doth hop: 290

[Stabs himself]

Thus die I, thus, thus, thus.

Now am I dead,

Now am I fled;

My soul is in the sky:

Tongue, lose thy light; 295

Moon take thy flight:

[Exit Moonshine]

Now die, die, die, die, die.

[Dies]

DEMETRIUS No die, but an ace, for him; for he is but one.

LYSANDER Less than an ace, man; for he is dead; he is nothing.

THESEUS With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover, and 300

prove an ass.

HIPPOLYTA How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisbe comes

back and finds her lover?

THESEUS She will find him by starlight. Here she comes; and

her passion ends the play. 305

[Re-enter Thisbe]

HIPPOLYTA Methinks she should not use a long one for such a

Pyramus: I hope she will be brief.

DEMETRIUS A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, which

Thisbe, is the better; he for a man, God warrant us;

she for a woman, God bless us. 310

LYSANDER She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes.

DEMETRIUS And thus she means, videlicet:--

Thisbe Asleep, my love?

What, dead, my dove?

O Pyramus, arise!

Speak, speak. Quite dumb? 315

Dead, dead? A tomb

Must cover thy sweet eyes.

These My lips,

This cherry nose,

These yellow cowslip cheeks, 320

Are gone, are gone:

Lovers, make moan:

His eyes were green as leeks.

O Sisters Three,

Come, come to me, 325

With hands as pale as milk;

Lay them in gore,

Since you have shore

With shears his thread of silk.

Tongue, not a word: 330

Come, trusty sword;

Come, blade, my breast imbrue:

[Stabs herself]

And, farewell, friends;

Thus Thisby ends:

Adieu, adieu, adieu. 335

[Dies]

THESEUS Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead.

DEMETRIUS Ay, and Wall too.

BOTTOM [Starting up] No assure you; the wall is down that

parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the

epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance between two 340

of our company?

THESEUS No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no

excuse. Never excuse; for when the players are all

dead, there needs none to be blamed. Marry, if he

that writ it had played Pyramus and hanged himself 345

in Thisbe's garter, it would have been a fine

tragedy: and so it is, truly; and very notably

discharged. But come, your Bergomask: let your

epilogue alone.

[A dance]

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve: 350

Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.

I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn

As much as we this night have overwatch'd.

This palpable-gross play hath well beguiled

The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed. 355

A fortnight hold we this solemnity,

In nightly revels and new jollity.

[Exeunt]

[Enter PUCK]

PUCK Now the hungry lion roars,

And the wolf behowls the moon;

Whilst the heavy ploughman snores,

All with weary task fordone. 360

Now the wasted brands do glow,

Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud,

Puts the wretch that lies in woe

In remembrance of a shroud.

Now it is the time of night 365

That the graves all gaping wide,

Every one lets forth his sprite,

In the church-way paths to glide:

And we fairies, that do run

By the triple Hecate's team, 370

From the presence of the sun,

Following darkness like a dream,

Now are frolic: not a mouse

Shall disturb this hallow'd house:

I am sent with broom before, 375

To sweep the dust behind the door.

[Enter OBERON and TITANIA with their train]

OBERON Through the house give gathering light,

By the dead and drowsy fire:

Every elf and fairy sprite

Hop as light as bird from brier;

And this ditty, after me, 380

Sing, and dance it trippingly.

TITANIA First, rehearse your song by rote

To each word a warbling note:

Hand in hand, with fairy grace,

Will we sing, and bless this place. 385

[Song and dance]

OBERON Now, until the break of day,

Through this house each fairy stray.

To the best bride-bed will we,

Which by us shall blessed be;

And the issue there create 390

Ever shall be fortunate.

So shall all the couples three

Ever true in loving be;

And the blots of Nature's hand

Shall not in their issue stand; 395

Never mole, hare lip, nor scar,

Nor mark prodigious, such as are

Despised in nativity,

Shall upon their children be.

With this field-dew consecrate, 400

Every fairy take his gait;

And each several chamber bless,

Through this palace, with sweet peace;

And the owner of it blest

Ever shall in safety rest. 405

Trip away; make no stay;

Meet me all by break of day.

[Exeunt OBERON, TITANIA, and train]

PUCK If we shadows have offended,

Think but this, and all is mended,

That you have but slumber'd here 410

While these visions did appear.

And this weak and idle theme,

No more yielding but a dream,

Gentles, do not reprehend:

if you pardon, we will mend: 415

And, as I am an honest Puck,

If we have unearned luck

Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,

We will make amends ere long;

Else the Puck a liar call; 420

So, good night unto you all.

Give me your hands, if we be friends,

And Robin shall restore amends.

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		[Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, Lords and
		Attendants]

HIPPOLYTA		'Tis strange my Theseus, that these
		lovers speak of.

THESEUS	More strange than true: I never may believe
	These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.
	Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,	5
	Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
	More than cool reason ever comprehends.
	The lunatic, the lover and the poet
	Are of imagination all compact:
	One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,	10
	That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
	Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
	The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling,
	Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
	And as imagination bodies forth	15
	The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
	Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
	A local habitation and a name.
	Such tricks hath strong imagination,
	That if it would but apprehend some joy,	20
	It comprehends some bringer of that joy;
	Or in the night, imagining some fear,
	How easy is a bush supposed a bear!

HIPPOLYTA	But all the story of the night told over,
	And all their minds transfigured so together,	25
	More witnesseth than fancy's images
	And grows to something of great constancy;
	But, howsoever, strange and admirable.

THESEUS	Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.
	[Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and HELENA]
	Joy, gentle friends! joy and fresh days of love	30
	Accompany your hearts!

LYSANDER		More than to us
		Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed!

THESEUS	Come now; what masques, what dances shall we have,
	To wear away this long age of three hours	35
	Between our after-supper and bed-time?
	Where is our usual manager of mirth?
	What revels are in hand? Is there no play,
	To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?
	Call Philostrate.	40

THESEUS		Say, what abridgement have you for this evening?
		What masque? what music? How shall we beguile
		The lazy time, if not with some delight?

PHILOSTRATE	There is a brief how many sports are ripe:
	Make choice of which your highness will see first.	45
	[Giving a paper]

THESEUS	[Reads] 'The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung
	By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.'
	We'll none of that: that have I told my love,
	In glory of my kinsman Hercules.
	[Reads]
	'The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,	50
	Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.'
	That is an old device; and it was play'd
	When I from Thebes came last a conqueror.
	[Reads]
	'The thrice three Muses mourning for the death
	Of Learning, late deceased in beggary.'	55
	That is some satire, keen and critical,
	Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony.
	[Reads]
	'A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus
	And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.'
	Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!	60
	That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow.
	How shall we find the concord of this discord?

PHILOSTRATE	A play there is, my lord, some ten words long,
	Which is as brief as I have known a play;
	But by ten words, my lord, it is too long,	65
	Which makes it tedious; for in all the play
	There is not one word apt, one player fitted:
	And tragical, my noble lord, it is;
	For Pyramus therein doth kill himself.
	Which, when I saw rehearsed, I must confess,	70
	Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears
	The passion of loud laughter never shed.

PHILOSTRATE	Hard-handed men that work in Athens here,
	Which never labour'd in their minds till now,	75
	And now have toil'd their unbreathed memories
	With this same play, against your nuptial.

PHILOSTRATE	No, my noble lord;
	It is not for you: I have heard it over,	80
	And it is nothing, nothing in the world;
	Unless you can find sport in their intents,
	Extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain,
	To do you service.

THESEUS	I will hear that play;
	For never anything can be amiss,	85
	When simpleness and duty tender it.
	Go, bring them in: and take your places, ladies.
	[Exit PHILOSTRATE]

HIPPOLYTA		I love not to see wretchedness o'er charged
		And duty in his service perishing.

THESEUS	The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing.
	Our sport shall be to take what they mistake:
	And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect
	Takes it in might, not merit.	95
	Where I have come, great clerks have purposed
	To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
	Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,
	Make periods in the midst of sentences,
	Throttle their practised accent in their fears	100
	And in conclusion dumbly have broke off,
	Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet,
	Out of this silence yet I pick'd a welcome;
	And in the modesty of fearful duty
	I read as much as from the rattling tongue	105
	Of saucy and audacious eloquence.
	Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity
	In least speak most, to my capacity.
	[Re-enter PHILOSTRATE]

THESEUS	Let him approach.	110
	[Flourish of trumpets]
	[Enter QUINCE for the Prologue]

Prologue	If we offend, it is with our good will.
	That you should think, we come not to offend,
	But with good will. To show our simple skill,
	That is the true beginning of our end.
	Consider then we come but in despite.	115
	We do not come as minding to contest you,
	Our true intent is. All for your delight
	We are not here. That you should here repent you,
	The actors are at hand and by their show
	You shall know all that you are like to know.	120

LYSANDER		He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he knows
		not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not
		enough to speak, but to speak true.

HIPPOLYTA		Indeed he hath played on his prologue like a child	125
		on a recorder; a sound, but not in government.

THESEUS		His speech, was like a tangled chain; nothing
		impaired, but all disordered. Who is next?
		[Enter Pyramus and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine, and Lion]

Prologue	Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show;
	But wonder on, till truth make all things plain.	130
	This man is Pyramus, if you would know;
	This beauteous lady Thisby is certain.
	This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present
	Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers sunder;
	And through Wall's chink, poor souls, they are content	135
	To whisper. At the which let no man wonder.
	This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn,
	Presenteth Moonshine; for, if you will know,
	By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn
	To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo.	140
	This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name,
	The trusty Thisby, coming first by night,
	Did scare away, or rather did affright;
	And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall,
	Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain.	145
	Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall,
	And finds his trusty Thisby's mantle slain:
	Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,
	He bravely broach'd is boiling bloody breast;
	And Thisby, tarrying in mulberry shade,	150
	His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest,
	Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain
	At large discourse, while here they do remain.
	[Exeunt Prologue, Thisbe, Lion, and Moonshine]

Wall	In this same interlude it doth befall
	That I, one Snout by name, present a wall;
	And such a wall, as I would have you think,
	That had in it a crannied hole or chink,
	Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,	160
	Did whisper often very secretly.
	This loam, this rough-cast and this stone doth show
	That I am that same wall; the truth is so:
	And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
	Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.	165

DEMETRIUS		It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard
		discourse, my lord.
		[Enter Pyramus]

Pyramus	O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so black!	170
	O night, which ever art when day is not!
	O night, O night! alack, alack, alack,
	I fear my Thisby's promise is forgot!
	And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,
	That stand'st between her father's ground and mine!	175
	Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,
	Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne!
	[Wall holds up his fingers]
	Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for this!
	But what see I? No Thisby do I see.
	O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss!	180
	Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me!

Pyramus	No, in truth, sir, he should not. 'Deceiving me'
	is Thisby's cue: she is to enter now, and I am to
	spy her through the wall. You shall see, it will	185
	fall pat as I told you. Yonder she comes.
	[Enter Thisbe]

Thisbe	O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans,
	For parting my fair Pyramus and me!
	My cherry lips have often kiss'd thy stones,
	Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.	190

Pyramus		I see a voice: now will I to the chink,
		To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face. Thisby!

Pyramus		Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace;
		And, like Limander, am I trusty still.	195

Thisbe		'Tide life, 'tide death, I come without delay.
		[Exeunt Pyramus and Thisbe]