A Midsummer Night’s Dream | Act V, Scene I - Page 2

THESEUS:
I wonder if the lion be to speak.
DEMETRIUS:
No wonder, my lord: one lion may, when many
asses do.(160)
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 Thisbe,(165)
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.(170)
THESEUS:
Would you desire lime and hair to speak better?
DEMETRIUS:
It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard discourse,
my lord.

Enter {Bottom as] Pyramus

THESEUS:
Pyramus draws near the wall; silence.
PYRAMUS:
O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so black!(175)
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;(180)
Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,
Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne.

[Wall shows his chink]

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,(185)
Curs'd he 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
Thisbe's cue. She is to enter now, and I am to spy her(190)
through the wall. You shall see it will fall pat as I told
you; yonder she comes.

Enter [Flute as] 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,(195)
Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.
PYRAMUS:
I see a voice; now will I to the chink,
To spy an I can hear my Thisbe's face.
Thisbe!
THISBE:
My love! thou art my love, I think.(200)
PYRAMUS:
Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace;
And like Limander am I trusty still.
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.(205)
PYRAMUS:
O, kiss me through the hole of this vile wall.
THISBE:
I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all.
PYRAMUS:
Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway?
THISBE:
'Tide life, 'tide death, I come without delay.
WALL:
Thus have I, wall, my part discharged so;(210)
And, being done, thus Wall away doth go.

[Exeunt]

THESEUS:
Now is the mural down between the two neighbors.
DEMETRIUS:
No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to
hear without warning.
HIPPOLYTA:
This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.(215)
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(220)
noble beasts in, a man and a lion.

Enter Lion and Moonshine

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.(225)
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.(230)
DEMETRIUS:
The very best at a beast, my lord, that e'er I saw.
LYSANDER:
This lion is a very fox for his valour.
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.(235)
THESEUS:
His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his valour;
for the goose carries not the fox. It is well. 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.(240)
THESEUS:
He is no crescent, and his horns are invisible
within the circumference.
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(245)
should be put into the lantern. How is it else the man i'
the 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(250)
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.(255)
MOON:
All that I have to say is to tell you that the lanthorn
is the moon; I, the man i' the moon; this thorn-bush, my
thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog.
DEMETRIUS:
Why, all these should be in the lantern; for all
these are in the moon. But silence; here comes Thisbe.(260)

[Re-]enter Thisbe

THISBE:
This is old Ninny's tomb. Where is my love?
LION:
O— The Lion roars [Flute as] Thisbe runs off
DEMETRIUS:
Well roared, Lion.
THESEUS:
Well run, Thisbe.
HIPPOLYTA:
Well shone, Moon. Truly, the moon shines with(265)
a good grace.

[The Lion tears Thisbe's mantle, and exits]

THESEUS:
Well moused, Lion.
DEMETRIUS:
And then came Pyramus.
LYSANDER:
And so the lion vanished.

[Re-]enter [Bottom as] Pyramus

PYRAMUS:
Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams;(270)
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,(275)
What dreadful dole is here!
Eyes, do you see?
How can it he?
O dainty duck! O dear!
Thy mantle good,(280)
What! stain'd with blood?
Approach, ye Furies fell.
O Fates! come, come;
Cut thread and thrum;
Quail, crush, conclude, and quell.(285)
  • play
  • a mixture of clay and sand
  • Snout uses his hands to simulate the cranny.
  • left (hand)
  • God reward you
  • back
  • precisely
  • Bottom mistakenly refers to Leander as Limander; Leander was a fabled lover who drowned while swimming to meet Hero, his lover.
  • “Leander”
  • Flute's mistake for “Hero”
  • tragic lovers
  • Bottom's mistake for “Cephalus and Procris”
  • Ninus'
  • “Come life or death”
  • drama
  • fierce
  • mother
  • consideration, judgment
  • crescent
  • angry
  • the act of declining gradually
  • sadness
  • See note: Fates in Act I, Scene II above.
  • the leftover tufts of yarn on a loam (the machine that makes thread into yarn)
  • Overpower
  • kill
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