A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Flute/Thisby Cue Lines.

Cue: Francis Flute, the bellows-mender. Here, Peter Quince.
Cue: You must take Thisby on you. What is Thisby… a wandering knight?
Cue: A wandering knight? Oh, no! It is a lady that Pyramus must love! Nay faith, let me not play a woman, I have a beard coming.
Cue: A stranger Pyramus than ever played here! Must I speak now?
Cue: Ay, marry, must you; for you must understand he goes but to see a voice that he heard and is to come again. Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue, of color like the red rose on triumphant brier; Most brisky juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew, I’ll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny’s tomb.
Cue: Ninny’s Ninny’s tomb.
Cue: No! No! It is Nin-nus’ tomb, man! NEE-NUHS, not Ninny’s. Ninus’ tomb, man!
Cue: No, no, no! That you answer to Pyramus! No, no, no! That you answer to Pyramus!
Cue: No! I mean your cue is past. It is “never tire.” Bottom, stand forth! OH! As true as truest horse that yet would never tire.
Cue: O grim-looked night! O night with hue so black! O night, which ever art when day is not! I fear my Thisby’s promise is forgot. And thou, O wall, O sweet and 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! 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, Curs’d be thy stones for thus deceiving me! O wall, full often hast thou heard my moansFor parting my fair Pyramus and me!My cherry lips have often kiss’d thy stones,Thy stones with lime and hair kit up in thee.
Cue: I see a voice. Now will I to the chink To spy if I can hear my Thisby’s face. Thisby! Thisby! Thisby! Pyramus! Pyramus! Pyramus! My love thou art, my love I think.
Cue: Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover’s grace And like Limander am I trusty still. And I like Helen till the Fates me kill.
Cue: Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true! As Shaf… As Shafu… As Shafu… Oh, I to you!
Cue: Oh kiss me through the hole of this vile wall! I kiss the wall’s hole, not your lips at all.
Cue: Wilt thou at Ninny’s tomb meet me straightway? Tide life, tide death, I come without delay.
Cue: All I have to say is – this lanthorn doth the horned moon present. This is old Ninny’s tomb! Where is my love?
Cue: Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams; I thank thee, moon, for shining now so bright, For 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 deflow’r’d my dear; Which is- no, no!- which was the fairest dame That lived, that lov’d, that lik’d, that look’d with cheer. Come, tears, confound! Out, sword, and wound The pap of Pyramus! Ay, the left pap Where heart doth hop. 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. Now die, die, die, die, die, die! Asleep, my love?What, dead, my dove?O Pyramus, arise!Speak, speak! Quite dumb!Dead, dead? A tombMust cover thy sweet eyes.These lily lips,This cherry nose,These yellow cowslip cheeks, are gone, are gone.But, tongue, not a word!Come, trusty sword! Come, blade, my breast imbrue!And farewell, friends,Thus Thisby ends.Adieu, adieu, adieu!
August 16, 2019