THESEUS Would you desire lime and hair to speak

better?

DEMETRIUS It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard

discourse, my lord.

THESEUS Pyramus draws near the wall. Silence.

BOTTOM, as Pyramus

O grim-looked night! O night with hue so black!

O night, which ever art when day is not!

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

I fear my Thisbe’s promise is forgot.

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

That stand’st between her father’s ground and

mine,

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

Show me thy chink to blink through with mine

eyne.

Thanks, courteous wall. Jove shield thee well for

this.

But what see I? No Thisbe do I see.

O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss,

Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me!

THESEUS The wall, methinks, being sensible, should

curse again.

BOTTOM No, in truth, sir, he should not. “Deceiving

me” is Thisbe’s cue. She is to enter now, and I am

to spy her through the wall. You shall see it will fall

pat as I told you. Yonder she comes.

Enter Thisbe (Flute).

FLUTE, as Thisbe

O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans

For parting my fair Pyramus and me.

My cherry lips have often kissed thy stones,

Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.

BOTTOM, as Pyramus

I see a voice! Now will I to the chink

To spy an I can hear my Thisbe’s face.

Thisbe?

FLUTE, as Thisbe

My love! Thou art my love, I think.

BOTTOM, as Pyramus

Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover’s grace,

And, like Limander, am I trusty still.

FLUTE, as Thisbe

And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill.

BOTTOM, as Pyramus

Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.

FLUTE, as Thisbe

As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.

BOTTOM, as Pyramus

O kiss me through the hole of this vile wall.

FLUTE, as Thisbe

I kiss the wall’s hole, not your lips at all.

BOTTOM, as Pyramus

Wilt thou at Ninny’s tomb meet me straightway?

FLUTE, as Thisbe

’Tide life, ’tide death, I come without delay.

Bottom and Flute exit.

SNOUT, as Wall

Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so,

And, being done, thus Wall away doth go.      He exits.

THESEUS Now is the wall down between the two

neighbors.

DEMETRIUS No remedy, my lord, when walls are so

willful 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.

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 (Snug) and Moonshine (Starveling).

SNUG, as Lion

You ladies, you whose gentle hearts do fear

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, as Snug the joiner, am

A lion fell, nor else no lion’s dam;

For if I should as lion come in strife

Into this place, ’twere pity on my life.

THESEUS A very gentle beast, and 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 valor.

THESEUS True, and a goose for his discretion.

DEMETRIUS Not so, my lord, for his valor cannot carry

his discretion, and the fox carries the goose.

THESEUS His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his

valor, for the goose carries not the fox. It is well.

Leave it to his discretion, and let us listen to the

Moon.

STARVELING, as 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.

STARVELING, as Moonshine

This lanthorn doth the horned moon present.

Myself the man i’ th’ 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’ th’ moon”?

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 reason,

we must stay the time.

LYSANDER Proceed, Moon.

STARVELING, as Moonshine All that I have to say is to tell

you that the lanthorn is the moon, I the man i’ th’

moon, this thornbush my thornbush, and this dog

my dog.

DEMETRIUS Why, all these should be in the lanthorn,

for all these are in the moon. But silence. Here

comes Thisbe.

Enter Thisbe (Flute).

FLUTE, as Thisbe

This is old Ninny’s tomb. Where is my love?

SNUG, as Lion O!

The Lion roars. Thisbe runs off,

dropping her mantle.

DEMETRIUS Well roared, Lion.

THESEUS Well run, Thisbe.

HIPPOLYTA Well shone, Moon. Truly, the Moon shines

with a good grace.

Lion worries the mantle.

THESEUS Well moused, Lion.

Enter Pyramus (Bottom).

DEMETRIUS And then came Pyramus.

Lion exits.

LYSANDER And so the lion vanished.

BOTTOM, as 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 Thisbe sight.—

But stay! O spite!

But mark, poor knight,

What dreadful dole is here!

Eyes, do you see!

How can it be!

O dainty duck! O dear!

Thy mantle good—

What, stained with blood?

Approach, ye Furies fell!

O Fates, come, come,

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.

BOTTOM, as Pyramus

O, wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame,

Since lion vile hath here deflowered my dear,

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

That lived, that loved, that liked, that looked with

cheer?

Come, tears, confound!

Out, sword, and wound

The pap of Pyramus;

Ay, that left pap,

Where heart doth hop.      Pyramus 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!

Moon, take thy flight! Moonshine exits.

Now die, die, die, die, die. Pyramus falls.

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 yet prove an ass.

HIPPOLYTA How chance Moonshine is gone before

Thisbe comes back and finds her lover?

THESEUS She will find him by starlight.