Overview

Lesson Procedure

60-65 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15-20 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure5 minutes

1. Warm-Up5 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Think of a story you know in two versions: a fairy tale and its cartoon, a novel and its film, a song and a cover. Name one thing the new version kept and one thing it changed. Why do you think the makers changed it?"

   Collect answers on the board in four columns: Keep, Change, Add, Cut. Point out that students already named the two halves of RL.9-10.9: what the new version draws on (the Keep column) and how it transforms the source (the other three). Then add the question that turns a list into analysis: what does each change do to the story's meaning or effect?

2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

   The source. Ovid, a Roman poet, finished the Metamorphoses around 8 CE: a long poem made of stories in which something changes form. In Book IV, two young neighbors in Babylon, Pyramus and Thisbe, are forbidden to marry by their fathers. They talk through a crack in the wall between their houses and agree to meet at night at the tomb of Ninus, under a mulberry tree with white fruit. What follows is a tragedy, and it ends with a transformation: the berries turn dark red for good.

   The later work. In A Midsummer Night's Dream (written around 1595-96), a group of Athenian workmen, whom Puck calls "rude mechanicals," rehearse the same story to perform at Duke Theseus's wedding: Peter Quince the carpenter, Nick Bottom the weaver (Pyramus), Francis Flute the bellows-mender (Thisbe), Tom Snout the tinker (Wall), Snug the joiner (Lion) and Robin Starveling the tailor (Moonshine). The title on Theseus's list of entertainments already announces a transformation: "A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus / And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth." Scholars generally agree that Shakespeare knew Ovid both in Latin and in Arthur Golding's English translation of 1567.

   Read the two excerpts aloud. For the play, assign readers for Wall, Pyramus, Thisbe and the three on-stage spectators (Theseus, Demetrius, Hippolyta).

   1"Thisbe, the brightest of the eastern maids;
   "And Pyramus, the pride of all the youths,
   "Contiguous dwellings held, in that fam'd town,
   "Where lofty walls of stone, we learn were rais'd,
   5"By bold Semiramis. Their neighbouring scite,
   "Acquaintance first encourag'd,--primal step
   "To further intimacy: love, in time,
   "Grew from this chance connection; and they long'd
   "To join by lawful rites: but harsh forbade,
   10"Their rigid sires the union fate had doom'd.
   "With equal ardor both their minds inflam'd,
   "Burnt fierce; and absent every watchful spy
   "By nods and signs they spoke; for close their love
   "Conceal'd they kept;--conceal'd it burn'd more fierce.
   15"The severing wall a narrow chink contain'd,
   "Form'd when first rear'd;--what will not love espy?
   "This chink, by all for ages past unseen,
   "The lovers first espy'd.--This opening gave
   "A passage for their voices; safely through,
   20"Their tender words were breath'd in whisperings soft.
   "Oft punctual at their posts,--on this side she,
   "And Pyramus on that;--each breathing sighs,--
   "By turns inhaling, have they mutual cry'd;--
   "Invidious wall! why lovers thus divide?
   25"Much were it, did thy parts more wide recede,
   "And suffer us to join? were that too much
   "A little opening more, and we might meet
   "With lips at least. Yet grateful still we own
   "Thy kind indulgence, which a passage gives,
   30"And amorous words conveys to loving ears.
   "Thus they loquacious, though on sides diverse,
   "Till night their converse stay'd;--then cry'd, adieu!
   "And each imprinted kisses, which the stones
   "Forbade to taste. Soon as Aurora's fires
   35"Remov'd the shades of night, and Phoebus' rays
   "From the moist earth the dew exhal'd, they meet
   "As 'custom'd at the wall: lamenting deep,
   "As wont in murmuring whispers: bold they plan,
   "Their guards evading in the silent night,
   40"To pass the outer gates. Then, when escap'd
   "From home, to leave the city's dangerous shade;
   "But lest, in wandering o'er the spacious plains
   "They miss to meet, at Ninus' sacred tomb
   "They fix their assignation,--hid conceal'd
   45"Beneath th' umbrageous leaves. There grew a tree,
   "Close bordering on a cooling fountain's brink;
   "A stately mulberry;--snow-white fruit hung thick
   "On every branch. The plot pleas'd well the pair.

   1Wall. 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,
   5Through 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,
   10Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.

   The. Would you desire lime and hair to speak better?

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

   The. Pyramus draws near the wall: silence!

   15Enter PYRAMUS.

   Pyr. 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!
   20And them, 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.
   25Thanks, 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!

   The. The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse
   30again.

   Pyr. No, in truth, sir, he should not. ‘Deceiving me’
   is Thisby’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.

   35Enter THISBE.

   This. 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.

   40Pyr. I see a voice: now will I to the chink,
   To spy an I can hear my Thisby’s face.
   Thisby!

   This. My love thou art, my love I think.

   Pyr. Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover’s grace;
   45And, like Limander, am I trusty still.

   This. And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill.

   Pyr. Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.

   This. As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.

   Pyr. O, kiss me through the hole of this vile wall!

   50This. I kiss the wall’s hole, not your lips at all.

   Pyr. Wilt thou at Ninny’s tomb meet me straightway?

   This. ‘Tide life, ’tide death, I come without delay.

   [Exeunt Pyramus and Thisbe.

   Wall. Thus have I, wall, my part discharged so;
   55And, being done, thus wall away doth go. [Exit.

   The. Now is the mural down between the two neighbours.

   Dem. No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to
   hear without warning.

   Hip. This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.

   60The. The best in this kind are but shadows; and the
   worst are no worse, if imagination amend them.

   Hip. It must be your imagination then, and not theirs.

   • Draws on: what Shakespeare keeps

     Compare Ovid's crack in the wall (T1, lines 15-20) with Wall's first speech (T2, lines 1-6).

     Result: Shakespeare keeps the wall, the chink and the whispering. Ovid's "narrow chink" through which "tender words were breath'd in whisperings soft" becomes Wall's "crannied hole or chink, / Through which the lovers... Did whisper often very secretly." He also keeps Ovid's order of events: talk through the wall, kisses that cannot pass, then a plan to meet at the tomb.

   • Transforms: a figure of speech made literal

     Ovid's lovers speak to the wall as if it could hear them (T1, lines 24-30). What do the workmen do with that idea?

     Result: They turn the personified wall into a person. Tom Snout, covered in "loam" and "rough-cast," announces "I, one Snout by name, present a wall" and holds up his fingers to make the chink. What was a figure of speech in Ovid becomes a costume that talks, and a scene of longing becomes a scene about clumsy staging.

   • Transforms: the same pattern with a new effect

     Ovid's lovers blame the wall, then thank it: "Invidious wall!" and "Yet grateful still we own / Thy kind indulgence" (T1, lines 24-29). Compare Pyramus in T2, lines 25-28.

     Result: Pyramus uses the same two moves, thanks and blame, but reverses them and squeezes them into four rhyming lines: "Thanks, courteous wall" turns into "O wicked wall" as soon as he sees nothing. In Ovid the mixed feelings grow over a long night of talk; in Shakespeare they flip on cue, so the pattern that showed real longing now shows overacting.

   • Transforms: the kiss

     Ovid: "each imprinted kisses, which the stones / Forbade to taste" (T1, lines 33-34). Thisbe in the play: "I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all" (T2, line 50).

     Result: Ovid's image is sad: the lovers kiss the stone because the stone is all they can reach. The workmen play the image literally, so the kiss lands on a hole in an actor's fingers, and the rhyme ("wall" and "all") turns it into a joke. The same detail now produces laughter instead of pity.

   • Writing the claim

     Combine what is kept, what is transformed and the effect into one sentence.

     Result: "In the wall scene, Shakespeare keeps Ovid's events and even his lovers' way of speaking to the wall, but by turning the wall into an actor and taking every image literally, he transforms Ovid's scene of forbidden longing into a comedy about amateur actors, which the spectators on stage openly mock."

3. Guided Practice15-20 minutes

   Why change a source? Two adapters and their audiences. Adapters change a source for someone. Read the workmen's planning scene, then the first two paragraphs of the Lambs' Preface. Pairs answer the questions one at a time; confirm each answer before moving on.

   1Bot. There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and
   Thisby that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw
   a sword to kill himself; which the ladies cannot abide.
   How answer you that?

   5Snout. By’r lakin, a parlous fear.

   Star. I believe we must leave the killing out, when all
   is done.

   Bot. Not a whit: I have a device to make all well.
   Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem to say, we
   10will 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:
   this will put them out of fear.

   Quin. Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall
   15be written in eight and six.

   Bot. No, make it two more; let it be written in eight
   and eight.

   Snout. Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion?

   Star. I fear it, I promise you.

   20Bot. Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves:
   to bring in,—God shield us!—a lion among ladies, is a
   most dreadful thing; for there is not a more fearful wild-fowl
   than your lion living; and we ought to look to ’t.

   Snout. Therefore another prologue must tell he is not
   25a lion.

   Bot. Nay, you must name his name, and half his face
   must be seen through the lion’s neck; and he himself must
   speak through, saying thus, or to the same defect,—‘Ladies,’
   —or, ‘Fair ladies,—I would wish you,’—or, ‘I would
   30request you,’—or, ‘I would entreat you,—not to fear, not
   to tremble: my life for yours. If you think I come hither
   as a lion, it were pity of my life: no, I am no such thing; I
   am a man as other men are:’ and there indeed let him
   name his name, and tell them plainly, he is Snug the joiner.

   35Quin. Well, it shall be so. But there is two hard
   things; that is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber;
   for, you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by moonlight.

   Snout. Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?

   Bot. A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanac; find
   40out moonshine, find out moonshine.

   Quin. Yes, it doth shine that night.

   Bot. Why, then may you leave a casement of the great
   chamber window, where we play, open, and the moon may
   shine in at the casement.

   45Quin. Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of
   thorns and a lantern, and say he comes to disfigure, or to
   present, the person of moonshine. Then, there is another
   thing: we must have a wall in the great chamber; for
   Pyramus and Thisby, says the story, did talk through the
   50chink of a wall.

   Snout. You can never bring in a wall. What say
   you, Bottom?

   Bot. Some man or other must present wall: and let him
   have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast about
   55him, to signify wall; and let him hold his fingers thus, and
   through that cranny shall Pyramus and Thisby whisper.

   1The following Tales are meant to be submitted to the young reader as an introduction to the study of Shakespeare, for which purpose his words are used whenever it seemed possible to bring them in; and in whatever has been added to give them the regular form of a connected story, diligent care has been taken to select such words as might least interrupt the effect of the beautiful English tongue in which he wrote: therefore, words introduced into our language since his time have been as far as possible avoided.

   2In those Tales which have been taken from the Tragedies, the young readers will perceive, when they come to see the source from which these stories are derived, that Shakespeare’s own words, with little alteration, recur very frequently in the narrative as well as in the dialogue; but in those made from the Comedies the writers found themselves scarcely ever able to turn his words into the narrative form: therefore it is feared that, in them, dialogue has been made use of too frequently for young people not accustomed to the dramatic form of writing. But this fault, if it be a fault, has been caused by an earnest wish to give as much of Shakespeare’s own words as possible: and if the “He said” and “She said,” the question and the reply, should sometimes seem tedious to their young ears, they must pardon it, because it was the only way in which could be given to them a few hints and little foretastes of the great pleasure which awaits them in their elder years, when they come to the rich treasures from which these small and valueless coins are extracted; pretending to no other merit than as faint and imperfect stamps of Shakespeare’s matchless image. Faint and imperfect images they must be called, because the beauty of his language is too frequently destroyed by the necessity of changing many of his excellent words into words far less expressive of his true sense, to make it read something like prose; and even in some few places, where his blank verse is given unaltered, as hoping from its simple plainness to cheat the young readers into the belief that they are reading prose, yet still his language being transplanted from its own natural soil and wild poetic garden, it must want much of its native beauty.

   1. Which two "hard things" does Quince name (T3, lines 35-50), and where does each come from? Teacher note: moonlight and a wall. Both come from Ovid, where the lovers meet at night and talk through the wall, and Quince says so outright: "says the story."
   2. How do the workmen solve each problem (T3, lines 42-56)? Teacher note: Bottom first wants real moonlight through an open window, but Quince proposes an actor "with a bush of thorns and a lantern" who will "present, the person of moonshine"; for the wall, "Some man or other must present wall." Each solution turns a thing in the story into a person who announces what he is.
   3. Who is the Lambs' audience, and what do they promise about Shakespeare's words (T7, paragraph 1)? Teacher note: "the young reader." They promise to use his words "whenever it seemed possible" and to avoid "words introduced into our language since his time."
   4. What do the Lambs admit they lose (T7, paragraph 2)? Teacher note: turning verse into prose means "changing many of his excellent words into words far less expressive of his true sense," and even verse left "unaltered" loses "much of its native beauty" once it is set among prose.
   5. Compare the two adapters. Teacher note: both change a story for an audience they want to protect or help. The workmen's changes break the story's spell and make it comic; the Lambs' changes try to keep as much of Shakespeare as they can. Accept other comparisons that rest on a quotation from each text.

   Each pair adds two rows to its Keep / Change / Add / Cut chart from the planning scene and writes one sentence that names a change and its effect.

4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Students read Ovid's account of the death of Pyramus and the workmen's version of both deaths, then complete a fresh Keep / Change / Add / Cut chart and write a one-sentence claim about how Shakespeare transforms the scene. Quiz questions 10-16 use these two excerpts and work as a check once students finish.

   1"And now slow seems the car of Sol to sink;
   "Slow from the ocean seems the night to rise;
   "Till Thisbe, cautious, by the darkness veil'd,
   "Soft turns the hinges, and her guards beguiles.
   5"Her features veil'd, the tomb she reaches,--sits
   "Beneath th' appointed tree: love makes her bold.
   "Lo! comes a lioness,--her jaws besmear'd
   "With gory foam, fresh from the slaughter'd herd,
   "Deep in th' adjoining fount her thirst to slake.
   10"Far off the Babylonian maid beheld
   "By Luna's rays the horrid foe,--quick fled
   "With trembling feet, and gain'd a darksome cave:
   "Flying, she dropp'd, and left her robe behind.

   "Now had the savage beast her drought allay'd,
   15"And backward to the forest roaming, found
   "The veiling robe;--its tender texture rent,
   "And smear'd the spoil with bloody jaws. The youth
   "(With later fortune his strict watch escap'd)
   "Spy'd the plain footsteps of a monster huge
   20"Deep in the sand indented!--O'er his face
   "Pale terror spread: but when the robe he saw,
   "With blood besmear'd, and mangled; loud he cry'd,--
   "One night shall close two lovers' eyes in death!
   "She most deserving of a longer date.
   25"Mine is the fault alone. Dear luckless maid!
   "I have destroy'd thee;--I, who bade thee keep
   "Nocturnal meetings in this dangerous place,
   "And came not first to shield thy steps from harm.
   "Ye lions, wheresoe'er within those caves
   30"Ye lurk! haste hither,--tear me limb from limb!
   "Fierce ravaging devour, and make my tomb
   "Your horrid entrails. But for death to wish
   "A coward's turn may serve. The robe he takes,
   "Once Thisbe's, and beneath th' appointed tree
   35"Bearing it, bath'd in tears; with ardent lips
   "Oft fondly kissing, thus he desperate cries;--
   "Now with my blood be also bath'd!--drink deep!
   "And in his body plung'd the sword, that round
   "His loins hung ready girt: then as he dy'd,
   40"Hasty withdrew, hot reeking from the wound,
   "The steel; and backwards falling, press'd the earth.
   "High spouts the sanguine flood! thus forth a pipe,
   "(The lead decay'd, or damag'd) sends a stream
   "Contracted from the breach; upspringing high,
   45"And loudly hissing, as the air it breaks
   "With jets repeated. Sprinkled with the blood,
   "The tree's white fruit a purple tinge receiv'd;
   "Deep soak'd with blood the roots convey the stain
   "Inly, and tinge each bough with Tyrian dye.

   1Pyr. 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.
   5But stay, O spite!
   But mark, poor knight,
   What dreadful dole is here!
   Eyes, do you see?
   How can it be?
   10O dainty duck! O dear!
   Thy mantle good,
   What, stain’d with blood!
   Approach, ye Furies fell!
   O Fates, come, come,
   15Cut thread and thrum;
   Quail, crush, conclude, and quell!

   The. This passion, and the death of a dear friend,
   would go near to make a man look sad.

   Hip. Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man.

   20Pyr. 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;
   25Out, sword, and wound
   The pap of Pyramus;
   Ay, that left pap,
   Where heart doth hop: [Stabs himself.
   Thus die I, thus, thus, thus.
   30Now am I dead,
   Now am I fled;
   My soul is in the sky:
   Tongue, lose thy light;
   Moon, take thy flight: [Exit Moonshine.
   35Now die, die, die, die, die. [Dies.

   Dem. No die, but an ace, for him; for he is but one.

   Lys. Less than an ace, man; for he is dead; he is nothing.

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

   40Hip. How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisbe
   comes back and finds her lover?

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

   Re-enter THISBE.

   45Hip. Methinks she should not use a long one for such
   a Pyramus: I hope she will be brief.

   Dem. 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.

   50Lys. She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes.

   Dem. And thus she means, videlicet:—

   This. Asleep, my love?
   What, dead, my dove?
   O Pyramus, arise!
   55Speak, speak. Quite dumb?
   Dead, dead? A tomb
   Must cover thy sweet eyes.
   These lily lips,
   This cherry nose,
   60These yellow cowslip cheeks,
   Are gone, are gone:
   Lovers, make moan:
   His eyes were green as leeks.
   O Sisters Three,
   65Come, come to me,
   With hands as pale as milk;
   Lay them in gore,
   Since you have shore
   With shears his thread of silk.
   70Tongue, not a word:
   Come, trusty sword;
   Come, blade, my breast imbrue: [Stabs herself.
   And, farewell, friends;
   Thus Thisby ends:
   75Adieu, adieu, adieu. [Dies.

5. Closure5 minutes

   Exit ticket: (1) Name one thing Shakespeare keeps from Ovid and one thing he cuts. (2) Finish the sentence: "Shakespeare draws on Ovid's ___, but he transforms it by ___, which makes the scene ___."

   Teacher note on content: both versions of the story end in two suicides. Ovid tells them seriously; in Shakespeare, the workmen's staging makes them absurd, and Theseus jokes about the playwright hanging himself. Say before reading that the comedy mocks bad acting, not the lovers' grief, and keep the discussion on the texts. Some students may have been affected by suicide: let them know where they can find support at school. Old words: "eyne" means eyes, "dole" grief, "thrum" the loose end of a thread, "imbrue" to stain with blood, and "pap" breast. Pyramus's "deflower'd" is usually read as a blunder for "devoured," one of the workmen's many wrong words.

   For homework: students read the three excerpts below: the end of Ovid's tale, the Lambs' retelling of the play and the play's last lines. Mary Lamb wrote this tale.

   1"Now Thisbe comes, with terror trembling still,
   "Fearful, she Pyramus expecting waits:
   "Him seek her beating bosom, and her eyes;
   "Anxious the peril she escap'd to tell.
   5"Well mark'd her eyes the place,--and well the tree;
   "The berries chang'd in color, long she doubts
   "The same or no. While hesitating thus,
   "The panting members quivering she beholds,
   "Upon the sanguin'd turf; and back recoils!
   10"Paler than box her features grow; her limbs
   "More tremble than when ocean fretful sounds,
   "Its surface briskly by the breezes swept.
   "Nor long the pause, her lover soon is known;
   "And now her harmless breast with furious blows
   15"She punishes; her tresses wild she rends;
   "Clasps the lov'd body; and the gaping wound
   "Fills with her tears,--their droppings with the blood
   "Immingling. On his clay-cold face she press'd
   "Her kisses, crying;--Pyramus! what chance
   20"Has torn thee from me thus? My Pyramus!
   "Answer me,--'tis thy dearest Thisbe speaks!
   "She calls thee,--hear me,--raise that dying face!
   "At Thisbe's name, his lids, with death hard weigh'd,
   "He rais'd--beheld her,--and forever clos'd.

   25"Him dying thus,--her lacerated veil;
   "The ivory scabbard empty'd of its sword;
   "She saw,--at once the truth upon her mind
   "Flash'd quick. Alas! thy hand, by love impell'd,
   "Has wrought thy ruin: but to me the hand,
   30"In this, at least, shall equal force display,
   "For equal was my love; and love will grant
   "Sufficient strength the deadly wound to give.
   "In death I'll follow thee; with justice call'd
   "Thy ruin's wretched cause,--but comrade too.
   35"Thou whom, but death seem'd capable to part
   "From me, shalt find ev'n death too weak will prove.
   "Ye wretched mourning parents, his and mine!
   "The dying prayers respect of him,--of me:
   "Grant that, entomb'd together, both may rest;
   40"A pair by faithful love conjoined,--by death
   "United close. And thou fair tree which shad'st
   "Of one the miserable corse; and two
   "Soon with thy boughs wilt cover,--bear the mark
   "Of the sad deed eternal;--ting'd thy fruit
   45"With mournful coloring: monumental type
   "Of double slaughter. Speaking thus, she plac'd
   "The steely point, while yet with blood it smok'd,
   "Beneath her swelling breast; and forward fell.
   "Her final prayer reach'd heaven; her parents reach'd:
   50"Purple the berries blush, when ripen'd full;
   "And in one urn the lovers' ashes rest."

   1There was a law in the city of Athens which gave to its citizens the power of compelling their daughters to marry whomsoever they pleased; for upon a daughter’s refusing to marry the man her father had chosen to be her husband, the father was empowered by this law to cause her to be put to death; but as fathers do not often desire the death of their own daughters, even though they do happen to prove a little refractory, this law was seldom or never put in execution, though perhaps the young ladies of that city were not unfrequently threatened by their parents with the terrors of it.

   [...]

   2Titania was still sleeping, and Oberon, seeing a clown near her who had lost his way in the wood and was likewise asleep, “This fellow,” said he, “shall be my Titania’s true love”; and clapping an ass’s head over the clown’s, it seemed to fit him as well as if it had grown upon his own shoulders. Though Oberon fixed the ass’s head on very gently, it awakened him, and, rising up, unconscious of what Oberon had done to him, he went toward the bower where the fairy queen slept.

   [...]

   3Oberon likewise took the ass’s head from off the clown, and left him to finish his nap with his own fool’s head upon his shoulders.

   [...]

   4The fairy king and queen, who were invisible spectators of this reconciliation, and now saw the happy ending of the lovers’ history, brought about through the good offices of Oberon, received so much pleasure that these kind spirits resolved to celebrate the approaching nuptials with sports and revels throughout their fairy kingdom.

   5And now, if any are offended with this story of fairies and their pranks, as judging it incredible and strange, they have only to think that they have been asleep and dreaming, and that all these adventures were visions which they saw in their sleep. And I hope none of my readers will be so unreasonable as to be offended with a pretty, harmless Midsummer Night’s Dream.

   1The. 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,
   5it would have been a fine tragedy: and so it is, truly; and
   very notably discharged. But, come, your Bergomask: let
   your epilogue alone. [A dance.
   The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:
   Lovers, to bed; ’tis almost fairy time.
   10I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn,
   As much as we this night have overwatch’d.
   This palpable-gross play hath well beguiled
   The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed.
   A fortnight hold we this solemnity,
   15In nightly revels and new jollity. [Exeunt.

   [...]

   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.
   20And 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,
   25If 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.
   30Give me your hands, if we be friends,
   And Robin shall restore amends. [Exit.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Ovid's narrator says the chink in the wall was "by all for ages past unseen" until "The lovers first espy'd" it, and asks, "what will not love espy?" (T1, lines 15-18). What does the question suggest?

   AThe wall was built with a small window that the two families used to talk. BLove makes the lovers notice what no one else had seen for years. CSpies hired by the fathers found the chink and reported it to them. DThe lovers made the chink themselves by digging through the stone.

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   After Wall's speech, Demetrius says, "It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard discourse" (T2, line 12). What is he doing?

   APraising Snout sincerely, because the speech was clear, well rehearsed and cleverly written. BComplaining that the wall stands where the audience cannot see the lovers. CAsking Theseus to stop the play because the actors have forgotten their lines. DMocking the speech with a pun: a partition is a wall and a part of a formal speech.

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Pyramus says, "I see a voice: now will I to the chink, / To spy an I can hear my Thisby’s face" (T2, lines 40-41). How does this line transform Ovid's wall?

   AIt swaps the senses: in Ovid the chink carried only voices, and Pyramus now sees a voice. BIt shows that the wall in the play has a much larger opening than Ovid's wall. CIt proves that Pyramus is blind in Shakespeare's version of the story of the lovers. DIt repeats Ovid's own words exactly, so Shakespeare changes nothing in this line.

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The lovers compare themselves to "Limander" and "Helen" and to "Shafalus" and "Procrus" (T2, lines 45-48). These are the workmen's garbled versions of famous lovers from classical stories, such as Cephalus and Procris, whose story Ovid also tells. What does this detail add?

   AIt shows that the workmen know classical stories better than Theseus and his court do. BIt replaces Ovid's two lovers with new characters taken from other classical myths. CThe workmen reach for learned examples but garble the names, showing their lack of learning. DIt proves that Pyramus and Thisbe are secretly unfaithful to each other in the workmen's version.

5. Question 5 of 20 · Short Answer

   Ovid's tale has no audience inside the story. Shakespeare adds one: Theseus says, "The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them," and Hippolyta answers, "It must be your imagination then, and not theirs" (T2, lines 60-62). What does adding these spectators do to Ovid's story? Use one quotation.

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6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Starveling suggests, "I believe we must leave the killing out," and Bottom answers, "Not a whit: I have a device to make all well" (T3, lines 6-8). What does Bottom choose to do with this part of Ovid's story?

   ACut the suicide, as Starveling wants, and give the play a happy ending instead. BKeep the suicide but add a prologue telling the audience that Pyramus is not really killed. CChange the suicide into an accident so that no character in the play is to blame. DMove the suicide offstage so that the ladies in the audience never have to watch it happen.

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Bottom warns that "there is not a more fearful wild-fowl than your lion living" (T3, lines 22-23). What does this phrase show?

   AThat Bottom has once seen a real lion and knows exactly how dangerous a lion can be. BThat the workmen are planning to bring a real wild animal into their play. CThat the animal in Ovid's original Latin story is a bird rather than a lion. DThat Bottom muddles his words: he calls a lion a wild-fowl, which is a bird.

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Ovid's lioness comes "her jaws besmear'd / With gory foam, fresh from the slaughter'd herd" (T4, lines 7-8). Bottom wants the actor playing the lion to say, "I am a man as other men are" (T3, line 33). What is the effect of this change?

   AA real danger becomes a polite actor, so the cause of the tragedy becomes a joke. BThe lion becomes more frightening, because the audience now knows that a real man is inside it. CThe change makes no difference, because the lion is not an important part of Ovid's story. DThe actor's speech shows that the workmen have never read or heard Ovid's version of the story.

9. Question 9 of 20 · Short Answer

   Bottom wants the prologue to "tell them that I Pyramus am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: this will put them out of fear" (T3, lines 11-13). What does this plan reveal about how the workmen understand a play, and how does it transform the effect of Ovid's story?

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10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Ovid's Pyramus blames himself: "Mine is the fault alone... I, who bade thee keep / Nocturnal meetings in this dangerous place" (T4, lines 25-27). Which lines of the workmen's Pyramus transform this moment?

    A"Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams; / I thank thee, Moon, for shining now so bright" B"Eyes, do you see? / How can it be?" C"O wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame? / Since lion vile hath here deflower’d my dear" D"Now am I dead, / Now am I fled"

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Ovid compares the blood from Pyramus's wound to water spurting from a broken lead pipe (T4, lines 42-46). The workmen's Pyramus instead cries, "Thus die I, thus, thus, thus" and "Now die, die, die, die, die" (T5, lines 29-35). What does this change accomplish?

    AOvid's image makes the death shocking; the workmen's Pyramus keeps announcing his death, which is ridiculous. BBoth versions make the death equally frightening and serious, so the change has no real effect. CShakespeare's version is more realistic, because real people often repeat the same words over and over as they die. DOvid's image is meant to be funny, and Shakespeare changes it to make the whole scene more serious.

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    The workmen's Pyramus praises the moon's "gracious, golden, glittering gleams" (T5, line 3). What is Shakespeare doing with the sound of this line?

    AImitating Ovid, whose Latin lines about the moon also repeat the same letter again and again. BMocking clumsy verse by piling up words that begin with the same sound until the line sounds silly. CShowing that Pyramus stays calm and happy for the rest of the scene, whatever he finds. DCreating a warning sound that tells the audience the lion is about to come back on stage.

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    After Pyramus's first lament, Theseus remarks, "This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad" (T5, lines 17-18). What does he mean?

    AThat the speech is so moving that the whole court has begun to weep. BThat Theseus has lost a dear friend and the play reminds him of that loss. CThat the actor playing Pyramus should speak more quietly and more slowly. DThat the speech alone would make no one sad; it would take a real death too.

14. Question 14 of 20 · Short Answer

    In Ovid, the moon simply lights the scene: Thisbe sees the lioness "By Luna's rays" (T4, line 11). In the play, Moonshine is an actor, Pyramus orders "Moon, take thy flight" (T5, line 34), and Hippolyta asks, "How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisbe comes back and finds her lover?" (T5, lines 40-41). Explain how turning the moon into an actor transforms the scene.

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15. Question 15 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which detail of the workmen's death of Pyramus (T5) is an addition, with nothing like it in Ovid's version (T4)?

    APyramus finds the cloak stained with blood and believes that Thisbe is dead. BPyramus weeps over the loss of his love before he stabs himself. CPyramus calls on the Furies and the Fates to come and cut his thread of life. DPyramus kills himself with his own sword after he finds the cloak.

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Write a one-sentence claim about how Shakespeare transforms Ovid's account of the death of Pyramus. Then give one quotation from each excerpt (T4 and T5) that supports it.

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17. Question 17 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    According to the second paragraph of the Preface (T7), why do the tales made from the Comedies use so much dialogue?

    AThe writers could rarely turn Shakespeare's words into narrative, and they wanted to keep as many of his words as possible. BThe writers thought young readers liked plays better than stories and wanted to train them as actors. CThe Comedies have less action than the Tragedies, so the writers had nothing else to report. DTheir publisher asked them to write every tale as a short play for performance in schools.

18. Question 18 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    The Preface calls the tales "small and valueless coins" and "faint and imperfect stamps of Shakespeare’s matchless image" (T7, paragraph 2). What does this metaphor claim?

    AThat the tales are worth more than the plays themselves, because young children can read them far more easily. BThat the tales are small copies stamped from a far more valuable original, meant to lead readers to it. CThat the Lambs were paid very little money for the hard work of writing the tales. DThat Shakespeare's plays should be sold to children as valuable collectors' items.

19. Question 19 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In the play, Hermia's father invokes the Athenian law that lets him have her put to death for refusing the husband he chose. The tale opens by explaining that law (T8, paragraph 1). How does the retelling transform it for young readers?

    AIt removes the law completely, so Hermia's father has no power over her at all. BIt makes the law harsher by saying that the fathers of Athens used it very often against their daughters. CIt turns the law into a fairy's spell that Oberon casts on the young lovers. DIt adds a narrator's wry comment reassuring readers that the law was seldom or never used.

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    In the play, Puck gives Bottom the ass's head and later reports, "An ass’s nole I fixed on his head" (Act III, scene 2). In the retelling, Oberon does it himself: "clapping an ass’s head over the clown’s" (T8, paragraph 2). Why might a retelling for young readers give this act to Oberon? Explain one gain and one loss.

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These standards connect to RL.9-10.9: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy. © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.