PyramusThisbe1.0039_ShakespeareBeatles

William Shakespeare, 1564-1616, (play of Pyramus and Thisbe performed in) A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 5, scene 1 and passim, ca. 1595-1596?, published London: 1600; collected in First Folio, London: Jaggard, 1623.

Shakespeare's character Bottom and his "rude mechanicals" prepare and rehearse the play-within-the-play during the action of A Midsummer Night's Dream and then present it in hysterical fashion to Theseus and Hippolyta near the play's end. Themes within the two narratives comment upon one another. Shakespeare could have known the myth in secondary reception from authors, i.e. Chaucer or Boccaccio or Wechtlin (ca. 1510; cf. Wechtlin's woodcut, =2.0100_Wechtlin); but he likely read it directly from Ovid even if in translation. Once Shakespeare's usage of the myth became popular, the reception of the myth went into high gear. The image at right a Hellenistic floor mosaic from Paphos on Cyprus. See PyramusThisbeANCIENT_NeaPaphos.