Pyramus and Thisbe

“ There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisbe that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw a sword to kill himself; which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you that?
SNOUT
By’r lakin, a parlous fear.
STARVELING.
I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done.
BOTTOM.
Not a whit; I have a device to make all well. Write me a prologue, and let the prologue seem to say we will do no harm with our swords, and that Pyramus is not killed indeed; and for the more better assurance, tell them that I Pyramus am not Pyramus but Bottom the weaver. ”

“ At the name of Thisbe Pyramus opened his eyes, then closed them again. She saw her veil stained with blood and the scabbard empty of its sword. "Thy own hand has slain thee, and for my sake," she said. "I too can be brave for once, and my love is as strong as thine. I will follow thee in death, for I have been the cause; and death which alone could part us shall not prevent my joining thee. And ye, unhappy parents of us both, deny us not our united request. As love and death have joined us, let one tomb contain us. ”

“ Now as at one side Pyramus, and Thisbe on the tother Stood often drawing one of them the pleasant breath from other: O spiteful wall (said they) why dost thou part us lovers thus? What matter were it if that thou permitted both of us In arms each other to embrace? or if thou think that this Were over-much, yet mightest thou at least make room to kiss. And yet thou shalt not find us churls: we think ourselves in debt For the same piece of courtesy, in vouching safe [2] to let Our sayings to our friendly ears thus freely come and go. ”

“ From this thou mayest learn, my son; for thou hast said that thy will is thy master, and hence thou hast Contek in thine heart, and this, since love is blind, may even breed Homicide. (1201-1330.)
Pyramus and Thisbe. In the city of Semiramis there dwelt two lords in neighbouring houses, and the one had a son named Piramus, and the other a daughter, Tisbee. These loved each other, and when two are of one accord in love, no man can hinder their purpose. ”

“ What will not love discover! It afforded a passage to the voice; and tender messages used to pass backward and forward through the gap. As they stood, Pyramus on this side, Thisbe on that, their breaths would mingle. "Cruel wall," they said, "why do you keep two lovers apart? But we will not be ungrateful. We owe you, we confess, the privilege of transmitting loving words to willing ears." ”

“ In summation, then, we see that although Pyramus and Thisbe and Amos and Laura have slight literary value, The Scourge, while failing to score very high as a minor epic, yet has a certain crude, narrative vitality. And Dom Diego, Mirrha, Hiren, and Philos and Licia, by virtue of their charm, inventiveness, or skillful adaptation of minor epic conventions to their expressive needs, form a hierarchy of increasing literary value that raises them as a group well above the level of the merely imitative. ”

“ When she came to the spot and saw the changed color of the mulberries she doubted whether it was the same place. While she hesitated she saw the form of one struggling in the agonies of death. She started back, a shudder ran through her frame as a ripple on the face of the still water when a sudden breeze sweeps over it. But as soon as she recognized her lover, she screamed and beat her breast, embracing the lifeless body, pouring tears into its wounds, and imprinting kisses on the cold lips. "O Pyramus," she cried, "what has done this? Answer me, Pyramus; it is your own Thisbe that speaks. ”

“ The vultures, to the conqueror's banner true,
Who feed where Desolation first has fed,
And whose wings rain contagion: how they fled,
When like Apollo, from his golden bow,
The Pythian of the age one arrow sped
And smiled! The spoilers tempt no second blow;
They fawn on the proud feet that spurn them as they go."
PYRAMUS AND THISBE Pyramus was the handsomest youth, and Thisbe the fairest maiden, in all Babylonia, where Semiramis reigned. Their parents occupied adjoining houses; and neighborhood brought the young people together, and acquaintance ripened into love. ”

“ Here, again and again, Pyramus on his side of the wall and Thisbe on hers, they would meet to tell each other all that had happened during the day, and to complain of their cruel parents. At length they decided that they would endure it no longer, but that they would leave their homes and be married, come what might. They planned to meet, on a certain evening, by a mulberry-tree near the tomb of King Ninus, outside the city gates. Once safely met, they were resolved to brave fortune together. ”

“ I’ll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny’s tomb.
QUINCE.
Ninus’ tomb, man! Why, you must not speak that yet. That you answer to Pyramus. You speak all your part at once, cues, and all.—Pyramus enter! Your cue is past; it is ‘never tire.’
THISBE.
O, As true as truest horse, that yet would never tire.
Enter Puck and Bottom with an ass’s head.
PYRAMUS.
If I were fair, Thisbe, I were only thine.
QUINCE.
O monstrous! O strange! We are haunted. Pray, masters, fly, masters! Help! ”

“ Fable VIII: Cephalus accidentally kills Procris.
135 118
BOOK THE FOURTH. FABLE I. The daughters of Minyas, instead of celebrating the festival of Bacchus, apply themselves to other pursuits during the ceremonies; and among several narratives which they relate to pass away the time, they divert themselves with the story of the adventures of Pyramus and Thisbe. These lovers having made an appointment to meet without the walls of Babylon, Thisbe arrives first; but at the sight of a lioness, she runs to hide herself in a cave, and in her alarm, drops her veil. ”

“ O Pyramus, respond! Your most dear Thisbe
calls you; heed and lift your lying countenances!”
At the name ‘Thisbe’ Pyramus stirred eyes made heavy by death
and closed them again after he saw her.
4.143
4.144
4.145
4.146
“Quae postquam vestemque suam cognovit et ense
vidit ebur vacuum, ‘tua te manus’ inquit ‘amorque
perdidit, infelix! est et mihi fortis in unum
hōc manus, est et amor: dābit hǐc in vulnera vires.
“After she recognized her veil, she saw the ivory [sheath] without
a sharpened point, [and] said “your hand and love has destroyed you,
o unlucky one! ”

“ W. W. Skeat, Shakespeare's Plutarch (1875) . The Life of Theseus.
Frank Sidgwick, Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-Night's Dream' (1908) . This contains the story of Pyramus and Thisbe as told by Ovid and much Elizabethan material about Robin Goodfellow. ”

“ The blood did spin on high As when a conduit pipe is cracked, the water bursting out Doth shoot itself a great way off, and pierce the air about. The leaves that were upon the tree besprinkled with his blood Were dyéd black. The root also, bestained as it stood A deep dark purple colour, straight upon the berries cast, Anon scarce ridded of her fear with which she was aghast, For doubt of disappointing him comes Thisbe forth in haste, And for her lover looks about, rejoicing for to tell How hardly she had 'scaped that night the danger that befell. ”

“ Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead.
DEMETRIUS.
Ay, and Wall too.
BOTTOM.
No, I 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 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 need none to be blamed. Marry, if he that writ it had played Pyramus, and hanged himself in Thisbe’s garter, it would have been a fine tragedy; and so it is, truly ”

“ Pyramus, arriving soon after, finds the veil of his mistress stained with blood; and believing her to be dead, kills himself with his own sword. Thisbe returns from the cave; and finding Pyramus weltering in his blood, she plunges the same fatal weapon into her own breast.
But Alcithoë, the daughter of Minyas,1 does not think that the rites2 of the God ought to be received; but still, in her rashness, denies that Bacchus is the progeny of Jupiter; and she has her sisters3 as partners in her impiety. ”

“ Having set out later, [Pyramus] saw, in deep
sand, the certain tracks of a wild animal, and his whole face
turned pale, when [ut] indeed also the garment stained with blood
[he] discovered. 'one night', he said, 'will destroy two lovers,
from which she was most worthy for long life.
My soul is guilty. I killed you, O [girl] who must be pitied,
[I] who, in places full of dread, ordered you to come by night,
nor did come here first. Tear apart our body
and devour our wicked entrails with your fierce bite,
O whatever lions dwell under this rock! ”

“ We may note here that the spelling ‘believe’ is regular in Gower, ‘ie’ representing ‘̄ẹ.’
[Pg 547]
2502. Galahot, i. e. Galahalt, called by Mallory ‘the haut prince.’
2504 ff. It may be noted that several of the lovers in the company of Youth are impenitent in their former faithlessness, as Jason, Hercules and Theseus, while Medea, Deianira and Ariadne are left to complain by themselves. Troilus has recovered Cressida, if only for a time. It is hard to say why Pyramus failed of Thisbe’s company, unless indeed she were unable to pardon his lateness (cp. 2582) .
2515 ff. Cp. v. 7213 ff. ”

“ The play is in blank verse of a poor kind with occasional rhyming couplets. After a prologue begins "Actus Primus and ultimus"; there are only five scenes in all, and the whole is quite short. The characters consist of Iphidius, father of Pyramus ”

“ As each part was mentioned, and Quince began to apportion them out, Bottom’s voice was heard again and again, declaring how well he could perform each one. The play was to be “The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisby,” and Bottom was selected for Pyramus, the hero.
“What is Pyramus—a lover or a tyrant?” he inquired.
“A lover that kills himself most gallantly for love,” answered Quince. ”

“ Herne joined a fair there would be no trouble with the Romanies, also he gave them reliable information from time to time. Captain Rudolph, the notorious Bath Road highwayman, owed his capture and subsequent hanging to Pyramus, as did also a score of lesser tobymen. Pyramus made no money out of footpads, so he threw them as a sop to Justice.
The gentry Pyramus fawned on with the oily cunning of his race. Every man has a joint in his harness, magistrates no less. Pyramus made these little weaknesses of the great his special study. ”

“ Piramus came soon and supposed she had been slain. Reproaching himself as the cause of her death, he slew himself with his sword in his foolhaste. Tisbee came then and found him dead, and she called upon the god and goddess of love, who had so cruelly served those who were obedient to their law. ”

“ For what would have happened to me and to Bamps if this butcher boy, whose name was Valtat, had not passed by, and if Pyramus had not followed him? We went on our way, without thinking of Pyramus. Man jostles up against great events, every moment of his life, without seeing them and without being conscious of them. ”

“ Or who hath seene a mournefull Doe lament
For her young Kid, in peecemeale torne and rent,
And by the poore remainders sit and mourne,
For loue of that which (out alas) is gone?
Let him behold sad Pyramus, and say,
Her losse, his loue, doth equall euery way.
For as a man that late hath lost his wits,
Breakes into fury and disaster fits,
So Pyramus in griefe without compare,
Doth rend his flesh, and teare his golden haire,
Making the trees to tremble at his mourning,
And speechlesse beasts to sorrow with his groaning. ”

“ Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,
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;164
And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.
The. Would you desire lime and hair to speak
better?168
Dem. It is the wittiest partition that ever I
heard discourse, my lord.
The. Pyramus draws near the wall: silence!
Enter Pyramus.
Pyr. O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so black!172
O night, which ever art when day is not! ”

“ You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus is a
sweet-fac'd man; a proper man, as one shall see in a summer's
day; ”

“ The characters in the sub-plot (Cnemon’s story) are less clearly delineated than those in the main narrative. The story serves however not merely to introduce Thisbe, who is useful for the main plot, but anticipates and prepares for certain main characters. Aristippus the betrayed husband, Demaeneta the wanton wife, Thisbe the corrupt maid and Cnemon the coveted youth parallel Oroondates, Arsace, Cybele and Theagenes himself.
The far east opens up before us under the shadow of the Great King of the Persians. ”

“ I have therefore, if complaints do at any time become a man’s heart, most cause to complain, since my country, which received the honour of Pyrocles’s education, should be a step to his overthrow, if human chances can be counted an overthrow to him that stands upon virtue.” “Oh excellent Musidorus,” answered Pyrocles, “how do you teach me rather to fall out with myself, and my fortune, since by you I have received all good, you only by me this affliction? To you and your virtuous mother, I in my tenderest years, and father’s greatest troubles, was sent for succour. ”

“ But when indeed Pyrocles was quite drawn from her eyes, and that her vital strength began to return unto her, now not knowing what they did to Pyrocles, but, according to the nature of love, fearing the worst, wringing her hands, and letting abundance of tears be the first part of her eloquence, bending her amber crowned head over her bedside to the hard-hearted Philanax. “O Philanax, Philanax,” said she, “I know how much authority you have with my father: there is no man whose wisdom he so much esteems, nor whose face he so much reposes upon. ”