Pyramus and Thisbe
The Play of Pyramus and Thisbe, without commentary, from William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream
DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Narrator/Prologue
Pyramus (man)
Thisby (woman played by a man)
Wall (person in rag shirt with pieces of plaster or drywall stuck on it.)
Moonshine (with lantern, dog and a branch of something)
Lion (wearing a kids Halloween-style lion-mane hood, whiskers painted on.)
Properties – a piece of veil or shawl, blunt dagger.
PROLOGUE: Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show;
But wonder on, till truth make all things plain.
This man is Pyramus, if you would know;
This beauteous lady Thisby is certain.
This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present
Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers sunder;
(wall looks mildly offended)
And through Wall’s chink, poor souls, they are content
(wall shows circle of fingers)
To whisper. At the which let no man wonder.
This man, with lanthorn, 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 grisly beast, which Lion hight by name,
The trusty Thisby, 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.
(all look at Lion, who shrugs)
Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall,
And finds his trusty Thisby’s mantle slain:
Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,
He bravely broach’d is boiling bloody breast;
And Thisby, 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 Prologue, Thisbe, Lion, and Moonshine.]
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 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:
And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.
PYRAMUS: O grim-look’d 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 Thisby’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 holds up his fingers.]
Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for this!
But what see I? No Thisby do I see.
O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss!
Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me!
[Enter 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,
Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.
(looks mildly nauseous viewing Wall)
PYRAMUS: I see a voice: now will I to the chink,
To spy an I can hear my Thisby’s face.
Thisby!
THISBE: My love thou art, my love I think.
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.
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.
[Exeunt Pyramus and Thisbe.]
WALL: Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so;
And, being done, thus Wall away doth go.
[Exit.]
[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.
Then know that I, one 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.
MOONSHINE: This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;
Myself the man i’ the moon do seem to be.
This thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog.
[Enter Thisbe.]
THISBE: This is old Ninny’s tomb. Where is my love?
LION: [Roaring] Oh—
[Thisbe runs off.]
[The Lion shakes Thisbe’s mantle, and exit.]
[Enter Pyramus.]
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 Thisby 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, stain’d with blood!
Approach, ye Furies fell!
O Fates, come, come,
Cut thread and thrum;
Quail, crush, conclude, and quell!
O wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame?
Since lion vile hath here deflower’d my dear:
Which is—no, no—which was the fairest dame
That lived, that loved, that liked, that look’d with cheer.
Come, tears, confound;
Out, sword, and wound
The pap of Pyramus;
Ay, that left pap,
Where heart doth hop:
[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:
[Exit Moonshine.]
Now die, die, die, die, die.
[Dies.]
[Re-enter Thisbe.]
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 My lips,
This cherry nose,
These yellow cowslip cheeks,
Are gone, are gone:
Lovers, make moan:
His eyes were green as leeks.
O Sisters Three,
Come, come to me,
With hands as pale as milk;
Lay them in gore,
Since you have shore
With shears his thread of silk.
Tongue, not a word:
Come, trusty sword;
Come, blade, my breast imbrue:
[Stabs herself.]
And, farewell, friends;
Thus Thisby ends:
Adieu, adieu, adieu.
[Dies.]
[FINIS.]
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