Pyramus

“ 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. ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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!
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?
Dead, dead? A tomb
Must cover thy sweet eyes.
These lily lips,
This cherry nose,
These yellow cowslip cheeks,
Are gone, are gone!
Lovers, make moan ”

“ Dwelt hard together two young folk, in houses joined so near, That under all one roof well nigh both twain conveyéd were. The name of him was Pyramus, and Thisbe call'd was she, So fair a man in all the East was none alive as he. Nor ne'er a woman, maid, nor wife in beauty like to her. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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; ”

“ When they left looking, for they lookt awhile,
First Pyramus, last Thisbe gan to smile,
I was afraide, thus Thisbe straight began:
Faint (he replied) a maid and feare a man?
I feard (quoth she) but now my feare is past.
Then welcome me (quoth Pyramus) at last.
Welcome (quoth she) and then she kist his lips,
And he from her, sweet Nectar drops out sips:
She pats his lips, he puls her milke white skin.
Thus children sport, and thus true loue begins:
But they as children, not as louers gamed,
For loue (alas) twixt them was neuer named. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Rome is best able to inform us what number of learned men this city has produced, for it is filled with persons from Tarsus and Alexandreia.
Such then is Tarsus.
16. After the Cydnus follows the Pyramus,262 which flows from Cataonia. We have spoken of it before. Artemidorus says, that from thence to Soli is a voyage in a straight line of 500 stadia. Near the Pyramus is Mallus,263 situated upon a height; it was founded by Amphilochus, and Mopsus, the son of Apollo, and Mantus, about whom many fables are related. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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! ”

“ It is not possible: you have not a man in all Athens able to discharge Pyramus but he.
Flute.
No, he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft man in Athens.
Quince.
Yea, and the best person too; and he is a very paramour for a sweet voice.
Flute.
You must say “paragon:” a paramour is, God bless us, a thing of naught.
Enter Snug.
Snug.
Masters, the duke is coming from the temple, and there is two or three lords and ladies more married: if our sport had gone forward, we had all been made men. ”

“ 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. ”

“ So when she saw Priam, how he had girded himself with armor as a youth, she cried to him and said, “What hath bewitched thee, that thou girdest thyself with armor? It is not the sword that shall help us this day; no, not though my own Hector were here, but rather the gods and their altars. Come hither to us, for here thou wilt be safe, or at the least wilt die with us.”
So she made the old man sit down in the midst. But lo! there came flying through the palace, Polites, his son, wounded to death by the spear of Pyrrhus, and Pyrrhus close behind him. ”

“ Then senseless Ilium, Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash Takes prisoner Pyrrhus’ ear. For lo, his sword, Which was declining on the milky head Of reverend Priam, seem’d i’ th’air to stick. So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood, And like a neutral to his will and matter, Did nothing. But as we often see against some storm, A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still, The bold winds speechless, and the orb below As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder Doth rend the region ”

“ Why, a scamp, brother, raised above his proper place, who takes every opportunity of giving himself fine airs. About a week ago, my people and myself camped on a green by a plantation in the neighbourhood of a great house. In the evening we were making merry, the girls were dancing, while Piramus was playing on the fiddle a tune of his own composing, to which he has given his own name, Piramus of Rome, and which is much celebrated amongst our people, and from which I have been told that one of the grand gorgio composers, who once heard it, has taken several hints. ”

“ All fresh he lies, and the blood is washed from him, and all his wounds are closed—and many spear-points pierced him. The blessed gods love him well, dead man though he be."
This King Priam was well pleased to hear. "It is well," he said, "for a man to honour the gods; for, indeed, as my son never forgot the dwellers on Olympus, so have they not forgotten him, even in death. But do thou take this fair cup, and do kindness to him, and lead me to the tent of Achilles." ”

“ With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
Old grandsire Priam seeks.
So, proceed you.
POLONIUS.
’Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and good discretion.
FIRST PLAYER.
Anon he finds him,
Striking too short at Greeks. His antique sword,
Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
Repugnant to command. Unequal match’d,
Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide ”

“ Then was Æneas minded to go back to the battle and die. For what hope was left? “Thoughtest thou, my father,” he cried, “that I should flee and leave thee behind? What evil word is this that has fallen from thy lips? If the Gods will have it that nought of Troy should be left, and thou be minded that thou and thine should perish with the city, be it so. The way is easy; soon will Pyrrhus be here; Pyrrhus, red with Priam’s blood; Pyrrhus, who slays the son before the face of the father, and the father at the altar. ”

“ Decius Mus, the commander opposed to Pyrrhus, was the grandson of his namesake referred to above; and now it was rumored among the Greeks that he intended, as soon as the armies came into action, to make the destruction of his enemies sure by sacrificing himself, as his grandfather had done. The soldiers of Pyrrhus were willing to meet any of the ordinary and natural chances and hazards of war; but, where the awful and irresistible decrees of the spiritual world were to be against them, it is not strange that they dreaded the encounter. ”

“ These spoils being carried about and shown among the ranks, the Romans were transported with joy, and shouted aloud; while equal discouragement and terror prevailed among the Greeks, until Pyrrhus, understanding what had happened, rode about the army with his face bare, stretching out his hand to his soldiers, and telling them aloud it was he. At last, the elephants more particularly began to distress the Romans, whose horses, before they came near, not enduring them, went back with their riders ”