Narrative Elements in “Pyramus and Thisbe”, from Ovid’s Metamorphoses Answers

Which lines from Ovid’s "Pyramus and Thisbe" establish setting?

Read the excerpt from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.Juliet: Ay me!Romeo: She speaks:O, speak again, bright angel! for thou artAs glorious to this night, being o'er my headAs is a winged messenger of heavenUnto the white-upturned wondering eyesOf mortals that fall back to gaze on himWhen he bestrides the lazy-pacing cloudsAnd sails upon the bosom of the air.

Which line(s) from Ovid’s "Pyramus and Thisbe" reveal a plot detail?

Read the excerpts from Ovid’s "Pyramus and Thisbe" and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet."Pyramus and Thisbe""Now this same nightwill see two lovers lose their lives: she wasthe one more worthy of long life: it's Iwho bear the guilt for this. O my poor girl,it's I who led you to your death; I saidyou were to reach this fearful place by night;I let you be the first who would arrive.O all you lions with your lairs beneaththis cliff, come now, and with your fierce jaws feastupon my wretched guts! But cowards talkas I do—longing for their death but notprepared to act.” At that he gathered upthe bloody tatters of his Thisbe's shawland set them underneath the shady treewhere he and she had planned to meet.He weptand cried out as he held that dear shawl fast:"Now drink from my blood, too!” And then he drewhis dagger from his belt and thrust it hardinto his guts.Romeo and JulietRomeo: O my love! my wife!Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath,Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yetIs crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,And death's pale flag is not advanced there.Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?O, what more favour can I do to thee,Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twainTo sunder his that was thine enemy?Forgive me, cousin! Ah, dear Juliet,Why art thou yet so fair? shall I believeThat unsubstantial death is amorous,And that the lean abhorred monster keepsThee here in dark to be his paramour?For fear of that, I still will stay with thee;And never from this palace of dim nightDepart again: here, here will I remainWith worms that are thy chamber-maids; O, hereWill I set up my everlasting rest,And shake the yoke of inauspicious starsFrom this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O youThe doors of breath, seal with a righteous kissA dateless bargain to engrossing death!Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!Thou desperate pilot, now at once run onThe dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!Here's to my love! [Drinks.] O true apothecary!Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. [Dies.]

Read the poem.The house was silentThe sky was dimUntil slim raysStretched highThen morning arrivedFluttering heavy lidsAnd opening eyes.

Read the excerpts from Ovid’s Pyramus and Thisbe and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet."Pyramus and Thisbe"They had no confidant—and so used signs: with these each lover read the other's mind: when covered, fire acquires still more force.Romeo and JulietRomeo: [. . .] It is enough I may but call her mine.Friar Lawrence: These violent delights have violent endsAnd in their triumph die, like fire and powder,Which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honeyIs loathsome in his own deliciousnessAnd in the taste confounds the appetite.Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so.Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.

Read the poem.Friends crouched lowWithout wordsBefore she came.Stifled gigglesHushed and shushedAnd waited.Finally,the door swung wideSurprise!

Read the excerpt from Ovid’s "Pyramus and Thisbe".The blood leaped high;it spouted like a broken leaden pipethat, through a slender hole where it is worn,sends out a long and hissing stream as jetsof water cleave the air.