Act V

`Tropolis

HIPPOLYTA
'Tis strange my Theseus, that these lovers speak of.

THESEUS
More strange than true:
The lunatic, the lover and the poet
Are of imagination all compact.

HIPPOLYTA
But all the story of the night told over,
And all their minds transfigured so together,
Grows to something strange and admirable.

Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and HELENA

THESEUS
Joy, gentle friends!

HIPPOLYTA
Joy and fresh days of love
Accompany your hearts!

THESEUS
Come now;
Where is our usual manager of mirth?
Is there no play to ease the anguish of a torturing hour?
Call Philostrate.

PHILOSTRATE
Here, mighty Theseus.

THESEUS
Say, what abridgement have you for this evening?

PHILOSTRATE
Make choice of which your highness will see first.

THESEUS reads
A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus
And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.

HIPPOLYTA
Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!
How shall we find the concord of this discord?

PHILOSTRATE
A play there is,
Which is as brief as I have known a play;
But, it is too long,
Which makes it tedious; for in all the play
There is not one word apt, one player fitted:
And tragical, my noble lord, it is;
For Pyramus therein doth kill himself.
Which, when I saw rehearsed, I must confess,
Made mine eyes water; merry tears of loud laughter.

HIPPOLYTA
And we will hear it.

PHILOSTRATE
No, it is not for you: I have heard it over,
And it is nothing.

THESEUS
I will hear that play;
Go, bring them in: and take your places.

PHILOSTRATE
So please your grace, the Prologue is addressed.

Enter QUINCE

QUINCE
If we offend, it is with our good will.
That you should think, we come not to offend,
But with good will. To show our simple skill,
That is the true beginning of our end.

THESEUS
Who is next?

Enter SNOUT

SNOUT as Wall
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 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.

DEMETRIUS
It is the wittiest partition that ever I discourse, my lord.

Enter BOTTOM

BOTTOM as 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 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 parts her fingers

Thanks, courteous wall:
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!

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

BOTTOM out of character
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. Yonder she comes.

Enter FLUTE

FLUTE as 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.

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
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
I come without delay.

Exeunt BOTTOM and FLUTE in different directions

SNOUT as Wall
Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so;
And, being done, thus Wall away doth go.

Exit

HIPPOLYTA
This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.

DEMETRIUS
Here come two noble beasts in, a man and a lion.

Enter SNUG and STARVELING

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, one Snug, am
A lion-fell.

STARVELING as Moonshine
This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;
Myself the man i' the moon do seem to be.

LYSANDER
Proceed, Moon.

STARVELING out of character
All that I have to say, is, to tell you that the lanthorn is the moon; I the man i'th'moon; this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush.

Enter FLUTE

FLUTE as Thisbe
This is old Ninny's tomb. Where is my love?

SNUG as Lion
Oh!

Lion roars. Thisbe runs off. They struggle offstage. Thisbe's mantle is flung onstage.

HERMIA
Well roared, Lion.

Enter Lion

HELENA
Well run, Thisbe.

Lion mauls mantle and exits

HIPPOLYTA
Well shone, Moon. Truly, the moon shines with a good grace.

LYSANDER
And so the lion vanished.

DEMETRIUS
And then came Pyramus.

Enter BOTTOM

BOTTOM as 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 Thisbe 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!
Ohhhh .... 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.
Out, sword, and wound
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.

He dies

LYSANDER
With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover, and prove an ass.

HIPPOLYTA
How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisbe comes back and finds her lover?

THESEUS
She will find him by starlight. Here she comes; and her passion ends the play.

Enter FLUTE

HIPPOLYTA
I hope she will be brief.

DEMETRIUS
She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes.

FLUTE as 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.
Tongue, not a word:
Come, trusty sword;
Come, blade, my breast imbrue!

Stabs herself

And, farewell, friends;
Thus Thisbe ends:
Adieu, adieu, adieu.

Dies

THESEUS
Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead.

EGEUS
Ay, and Wall too.

BOTTOM sitting up out of character
No assure you; the wall is down that parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the epilogue?

THESEUS
No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no excuse. For when the players are all dead, there needs none to be blamed. Let your epilogue alone.

Players bow and exeunt

HIPPOLYTA
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:
Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.
I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn.

THESEUS
Sweet friends, to bed.

Exeunt all

Enter PUCK and FAIRIES

PUCK
And we fairies, that do run,
From the presence of the sun,
Following darkness like a dream.

Enter OBERON and TITANIA

TITANIA
Hand in hand, with fairy grace,
Will we sing, and bless this place.

Song and dance

OBERON
Now, until the break of day,
Through this house each fairy stray.

TITANIA
So shall all the couples three
Ever true in loving be;
Trip away; make no stay.

OBERON
Meet us all by break of day.

Exeunt OBERON, TITANIA, and FAIRIES

PUCK
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

Exit