Pyramus and Thisbe
Created By: Daphne Rios and Melanie Arambula

“...Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowed in. Laura, to his lady, was a kitchen wench (marry, she had a better love to berhyme her), Dido a dowdy, Cleopatra a gypsy, Helen and Hero hildings and harlots, Thisbe a gray eye or so, but not to the purpose. Signior Romeo, bonjour!...”


Act II Scene IV

The Story Of Pyramus and Thisbe

• Thisbe is a character that appears in the work Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid. Thisbe lived in Babylon and was the lover of Pyramus. They both lived in connected houses, but were forbidden to marry due to their parents, who were rivals. The two lovers were able to express their feelings to each other through a crack in a wall and decided to meet near the tomb of Ninus under a mulberry tree. Thisbe arrived first, but saw a lioness that had its mouth drenched in blood because of hunting; Thisbe, frightened, fled losing her veil in the process. When Pyramus arrived he saw the veil he had gifted her and he was terrified. He thought that Thisbe was dead, he fell on his sword and died. His blood fell on the white mulberry fruit, staining them. Thisbe returned shortly afterwards only to find Pyramus' body on the ground. She mourned and after a short time span, she took the sword and killed herself with it. In the end, the gods, touched by Thisbe's mourning, decided to permanently turn the color of the mulberry fruit to red, as a reminder of the relationship of the two young lovers. The story was told in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women, and a version is acted by the “rude mechanicals” in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

allusion comparison to romeo and juliet

• Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet based off of Pyramus and Thisbe, without the work of Ovid, Romeo and Juliet may not have come to light. The work of Ovid and Shakespeare are very similar in the sense that all the main characters die in the end due to true love. Their families are at feuds with one another and the males quickly state that their loves are dead when in reality they aren't.

sources

• Dixon-Kennedy, Mike. "Pyramus and Thisbe." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras, ABC-CLIO, 2017, ancienthistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/577384. Accessed 16 Mar. 2017.
• The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Pyramus and Thisbe." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 06 Dec. 2007. Web. 19 Mar. 2017. .