This man is Pyramus, if you would know;

This beauteous lady Thisbe is, certain.

This man with lime and roughcast doth present

Wall, that vile wall which did these lovers sunder;

And through Wall’s chink, poor souls, they are content

To whisper; at the which let no man wonder.

This man, with lantern, 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.

This grizzly beast, which ’Lion’ hight by name,

The trusty Thisbe 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.

Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall,

And finds his trusty Thisbe’s mantle slain;

Whereat with blade—with bloody, blameful blade—

He bravely broached his boiling bloody breast;

And Thisbe, tarrying in mulberry shade,

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 all the clowns but Snout as Wall⌉

THESEUS I wonder if the lion be to speak.

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

⌈SNOUT⌉ (as 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

Did whisper often, very secretly.

This loam, this roughcast, 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.

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.

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.

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,

Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me.

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

BOTTOM (to Theseus) 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.

Enter Flute as Thisbe

Yonder she comes.

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 Lemander am I trusty still.

FLUTE (as Thisbe)

And I like Helen, till the fates me kill.

BOTTOM (as Pyramus)

Not Shaphalus to Procrus was so true.

FLUTE (as Thisbe)

As Shaphalus 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.

Exeunt Bottom and Flute severally

SNOUT (as Wall)

Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so;

And being done, thus Wall away doth go. Exit

THESEUS Now is the wall down between the two neighbours.

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.

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 Snug as Lion, and Starveling as Moonshine with a lantern, thorn bush, and dog

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 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.

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.