Enter Pyramus.

DEMETRIUS   And then came Pyramus. [Exit Lion.]

LYSANDER     And so the Lion vanished.

BOTTOM        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, stained with blood?

     Approach, ye Furies fell.

O Fates, come, come,

Cut thread and thrum,

      Quail, crush, conclude, and quell. (5.1.263-280)

Running commentary again, they can’t stop themselves, won’t shut up: and then came Pyramus. And so the Lion vanished. It’s Bottom’s big moment! He apostrophises the moon! Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams. Ummmmm. I thank thee, Moon, for shining now so bright. OK? For by thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams—Quince does love a bit of alliteration, and Bottom RELISHES it—I trust to take of truest Thisbe sight. I will see her in the moonlight! And then Pyramus’s speech is like a little compendium of shock reactions: but stay—let’s pause a moment—O spite! Oh NO! What have we here? But mark, poor knight, what dreadful dole is here? there’s going to be an awful lot of lamentation, this is AWFUL… Eyes, do you see? How can it be? What IS this? It CAN’T be? O dainty duck, O dear!And that sounds authentic, affectionate, natural. Thy mantle good—and I know he’s not really saying, and you’ve come out in your good coat specially, and look at it, here it is on the ground, RUINED, what, stained with blood? This is looking bad, very bad. Approach, ye Furies fell. This is a tragedy now, gather round; revenge may be called for… O Fates, come, come—they spin the thread of life, but now Bottom the weaver calls for it to be cut, cut thread and thrum: not just the thread is being cut but the whole fabric is being cut from the loom. And a bit more alliteration, touch of onomatopoeia to finish this off, quail, crush, conclude, and quell. The sounds matter more than the sense, and it is full of passion…