by Peter Jones
“Prame,” clāmāuit, “quis tē mihi cāsus †adēmit?
Prame, respondē! tua tē, †cārissime, Thisbē
†nōminat; exaudī, uultūsque attolle iacentēs!”
ad nōmen †Thisbēs, oculōs iam morte grauātō
145
Pramus †ērēxit, uīsāque recondidit illā.’
4.147–66: Thisbe laments and commits suicide too
†‘quae postquam uestemque suam cognōuit, et ēnse
uīdit †ebur uacuum, “tua tē manus” inquit “amorque
perdidit, †īnfēlīx! est et mihi fortis^ in ūnum
hoc ^manus, est et amor: dabit hīc †in uulnera uīrēs.
150
persequar †exstinctum, lētīque miserrima dīcar
causa comesque tuī; †quīque a mē morte reuellī
h sōlā poterās, poteris †nec morte reuellī.
hoc tamen †ambōrum uerbīs estōte rogātī,
ō multum miserī meus illīusque parentēs,
155
†ut, quōs certus amor, quōs hōra nouissima iūnxit,
†compōnī tumulō nōn inuideātis eōdem.
at †tū^ quae rāmīs ^arbor miserābile corpus
nunc tegis ūnīus, mox es tēctūra duōrum,
†signa tenē caedis, pullōsque et luctibus aptōs
160
semper habē fētūs, geminī †monimenta cruōris.”
dīxit, et †aptātō pectus mucrōne sub īmum
†incubuit ferrō, quod adhūc ā caede tepēbat.
uōta tamen tetigēre deōs, tetigēre parentēs;
nam color in pōmō est, ubi †permātūruit, āter,
165
quodque †rogīs superest, ūnā requiēscit in urnā.’
Learning vocabulary for Passage 9, Pyramus and Thisbe
āter ātr-a um black
fēt-us ūs 4m. fruit
laniō 1 tear at
mōr-us ī 2f./mōr-um ī 2n. mulberry-tree
murmur -is 3n. whisper
pact-um ī 2n. agreement
pact-us a um agreed
pariēs pariet-is 3m. wall
pōm-um ī 2n. fruit
radi-us ī 2m. ray
tumul-us ī 2m. tomb, mound, hill
uēlāmen uēlāmin-is 3n. cloak
Study section
1. Write out and scan ll.142–6.
2. Does tremebunda (133) agree better with Thisbe (understood subject) or membra (134)?
3. If the text at 143 read cārissima with no commas, what would it mean? Which do you prefer?
4. In what senses would you call this story ‘romantic’?
5. ‘Pyramus and Thisbe wish to move away from “nods and signs” with which their love was first formulated to a real presence, in which the barriers of language are effaced and they can be truly together . . . Their failure is therefore inevitable, because there can be no such escape from language’ (Fowler, 2000, 161). Discuss.
6. What do you make of Arthur Golding’s translation of ll.93–163? Is it fair to the spirit of Ovid?
1 As soon as darkness once was come, straight Thisbe did devise 93
A shift to wind her out of doors, that none that were within
Perceive her. And, muffling her with clothes about her chin
That no man might discern her face, to Ninus’ tomb she came
5 Unto that tree and sat her down there underneath the same. 95
Love made her bold. But see the chance: there comes besmeared with blood
About the chaps a lioness all foaming from the wood
From slaughter lately made of kine, to staunch her bloody thirst
With water of the foresaid spring. Whom Thisbe spying first
10 Afar by moonlight, thereupon with fearful steps gan fly 100
And in a dark and irksome cave did hide herself thereby.
And as she fled away for haste, she let her mantle fall,
The which for fear she left behind, not looking back at all.
Now when the cruel lioness her thirst had staunched well,
15 In going to the wood she found the slender weed that fell
From Thisbe, which with bloody teeth in pieces she did tear.
The night was somewhat further spent ere Pyramus came there; 105
Who, seeing in the subtle sand the print of lion’s paw,
Waxed pale for fear. But when also the bloody cloak he saw
20 All rent and torn, ‘One night’, he said, ‘shall lovers two confound,
Of which long life deservèd she of all that live on ground.
My soul deserves of this mischance the peril for to bear; 110
I, wretch, have been the death of thee, which to this place of fear
Did cause thee in the night to come and came not here before.
25 My wicked limbs and wretched guts with cruel teeth therefore
Devour ye, O ye lions all that in this rock do dwell!
But cowards use to wish for death.’ The slender weed that fell 115
From Thisbe up he takes and straight doth bear it to the tree
Which was appointed erst the place of meeting for to be.
30 And when he had bewept and kissed the garment which he knew,
‘Receive thou my blood too,’ quoth he. And therewithal he drew
His sword, the which among his guts he thrust, and by and by
Did draw it from the bleeding wound, beginning for to die, 120
And cast himself upon his back. The blood did spin on high
35 As, when a conduit-pipe is cracked, the water, bursting out,
Doth shoot itself a great way off and pierce the air about.
The leaves that were upon the tree, besprinkled with his blood, 125
Were dyèd black. The root also, bestainèd as it stood,
A deep dark purple colour straight upon the berries cast.
40 Anon, scarce ridded of her fear with which she was aghast,
For doubt of disappointing him comes Thisbe forth in haste
And for her lover looks about, rejoicing for to tell
How hardly she had scaped that night the danger that befell. 130
And as she knew right well the place and fashion of the tree
45 (As which she saw so late before), even so when she did see
The colour of the berries turned, she was uncertain whether
It were the tree at which they both agreed to meet together.
While in this doubtful stound1 she stood, she cast her eye aside
And there beweltered in his blood her lover she espied
50 Lie sprawling with his dying limbs. At which she started back
And lookèd pale as any box; a shuddering through her strake,
Even like the sea which suddenly with whizzing noise doth move 135
When with a little blast of wind it is but touched above.
But when, approaching nearer him, she knew it was her love,
55 She beat her breast, she shriekèd out, she tare her golden hairs
And, taking him between her arms, did wash his wounds with tears.
She ment2 her weeping with his blood and, kissing all his face 140
(Which now became as cold as ice), she cried in woeful case,
‘Alas! What chance, my Pyramus, hath parted thee and me?
60 Make answer, O my Pyramus! It is thy Thisb, even she
Whom thou dost love most heartily that speaketh unto thee.
Give ear and raise thy heavy head.’ He, hearing Thisbe’s name, 145
Lift up his dying eyes and, having seen her, closed the same.
But when she knew her mantle there and saw his scabbard lie
65 Without the sword, ‘Unhappy man, thy love hath made thee die.
Thy love’, she said, ‘hath made thee slay thyself. This hand of mine
Is strong enough to do the like. My love no less than thine 150
Shall give me force to work my wound. I will pursue the dead
And, w
retched woman as I am, it shall of me be said
70 That like as of thy death I was the only cause and blame,
So am I thy companion eke and partner in the same.
For death which only could, alas, asunder part us twain
Shall never so dissever us but we will meet again.
And you, the parents of us both, most wretched folk alive, 155
75 Let this request that I shall make in both our names belive3
Entreat you to permit that we, whom chaste and steadfast love
And whom even death hath joined in one, may as it doth behove
In one grave be together laid. And thou, unhappy tree,
Which shroudest now the corse of one and shalt anon through me
80 Shroud two, of this same slaughter hold the sicker signs for aye:
Black be the colour of thy fruit and mourning-like alway, 160
Such as the murder of us twain may evermore bewray.’
This said, she took the sword yet warm with slaughter of her love
And, setting it beneath her breast, did to her heart it shove.
7. It is worth comparing the rude mechanicals’ version of this story in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream (Act 5, scene 1). Shakespeare knew Ovid through Golding.
1. stound = amazement
2. ment = mixed
3. belive = at once
Vocabulary and grammar
55 Oriēns Orient-is 3m. the East
56 altera: take in order altera praelāta puellīs . . . quās
praelāt-us a um exalted over (+ dat.) (praeferō)
57 contigu-us a um adjacent
dīcitur: subject is Semīramis, the founder and queen of Babylon (60 miles south of modern Baghdad; Herodotus, Histories 1.184). She was the widow of Ninus (88), after whom Nineveh was named
58 coctil-is e built of baked (mud) bricks (Herodotus, Histories 1.179)
59 nōtiti-a ae 1f. acquaintance
grad-us ūs 4m. approach (i.e. steps towards each other)
uīcīni-a ae 1f. proximity
60 taed-a ae 1f. marriage (torch). Take with iūre
coissent: note the conditional plupf. subj.
61 quod: ‘the thing which’, explained in 62. There is an amusing jingling sound to 61
62 ex aequō equally
63 cōnsci-us a um complicit, who knows about it
nūt-us ūs 4m. nod
64 quōque magis . . . magis: + ind., ‘by how much the more . . . the more’, RL100B.5, WSuppl.syntax. Note the polyptoton of tegitur, tēctus and chiasmus with magis
aestuō 1 blaze up
65 findō 3 fidī fissum split (the subject of fissus erat is pariēs)
rīm-a ae 1f. crack
ōlim long ago
66 cum fieret: i.e. when the wall was being built
*pariēs pariet-is 3m. wall (separating the two properties). This scans as two syllables, the first heavy, as though the i were consonantal
commūn-is e shared, common to (+ dat.)
domuī: dat. of domus
67 uiti-um ī 2n. fault
nūllī: dat. of agent
saecul-um ī 2n. age
notō 1 notice
68 uīdistis: Ovid drops into the 2nd pl. here (‘apostrophe’), addressing the two lovers
69 illud: i.e. the crack in the wall
70 *murmur -is 3n. whisper
blanditi-a ae 1f. sweet nothing, endearment
trānseō trānsīre 3 cross, pass
71 hinc . . . illinc: chiasmus
72 in uicēs in turn
anhēlit-us ūs 4m. breath. The two are breathing each other’s breath in turn through the chink in the garden wall
73 inuid-us a um envious
obstō 1 get in the way of (+ dat.)
74 quantum erat: ‘how much would it be [for you to, ut + subj.]’, i.e. how little it would cost you to . . . ; cf. RLS2(c)Notes(6)
sinō 3 allow
75 pateō 2 open up
76 ingrāt-us a um ungrateful
fateor 2 dep. admit
77 quod: explains what the lovers owe – ‘the fact that . . .’
amīcās: here used as an adjective
trānsit-us ūs 4m. way of communicating, pathway
78 nēquīquam in vain
sēd-ēs is 3f. position, house
79 noctem: note acc. with sub
80 peruenientia: stress the per – the ōscula could not get through the wall
81 poster-us a um the next (a golden line)
nocturn-us a um of the night
ignēs: i.e. the stars
82 pruīnōs-us a um frosty
*radi-us ī 2m. ray
siccō 1 dry
84 multa: n. pl. object of questī
statuō 3 decide to/that they should (ut + subj. – temptent, relinquant, conueniant, lateant)
silēns silent-is quiet, silent
85 for-ēs ium 3f. pl. doors
excēdō 3 depart
86 tēct-um ī 2n. building
87 nēue: ‘and lest’
errandum: impersonal gerundive, ‘it is to be got lost by (dat.) them spatiantibus . . .’, ‘they should get lost as they . . .’, RLO(2)
88 conueniō 3/4 meet (subj. after statuunt)
bust-um ī 2n. tomb. When the romance of Ninus and Semiramis had passed into legend, we are told this modest monument was a mile high and a mile wide
Nin-us ī 2m. Ninus (legendary founder of Ninevah and husband of Semiramis)
89 niue-us a um snowy (white)
ūber -is fertile
*pōm-um ī 2n. fruit
90 *mōr-us ī 2f./mōr-um ī 2n. mulberry-tree. Ovid brings in the mulberry, reminding us that the apparent purpose of this story was to explain how its fruit changed colour
contermin-us a um next to (+ dat.). The location next to a fōns is important: it is the fōns that will attract the lion
91 *pact-um ī 2n. agreement; pact-us a um agreed
92 praecipitor 1 dep. plunge headlong. There is a neat chiastic balance to this line
aquīs: i.e. dip below the horizon. The sun is presumed to disappear under the sea in the West, and at night to emerge from it in the East (it is irrelevant that it is quite difficult to see the sea from Babylon, the Mediterranean being about 500 miles west, the Persian gulf about 300 south-east)
93 callid-us a um skilful
tenebr-ae ārum 2f. pl. shadows, darkness
uersō 1 manipulate, turn
cardō cardin-is 3m. door(-hinge). A tense moment – will it creak?
94 adopert-us a um covered, veiled (presumably with the uēlāmen, 101: preparation for what will follow)
uultum: acc. of respect, RL6.3
95 *tumul-us ī 2m. tomb, mound, hill
96 audācem: understand ‘her’
97 leaen-a ae 1f. lioness
boum: gen. pl. of bōs, ‘bull, cow’, dependent on recentī caede
spūmō 1 foam
oblit-us a um smeared (oblinō)
rict-us ūs 4m. jaw (acc. of respect after oblita)
98 dēpōnō 3 quench
99 quam: i.e. the lioness (connecting relative, RL107)
Babylōni-us a um Babylonian
100 fūgit . . . fugit (101): note the difference between these two forms
101 tergō: ‘true’ abl., RL100A, Survey(a)
*uēlāmen uēlāmin-is 3n. any sort of clothes or covering (cf. 94, which argues for headgear of some sort, and uestem 107)
102 le-a ae 1f. lioness
compescō 3 compescuī allay, quench
104 cruentāt-us a um bloody
*laniō 1 tear at
amict-us ūs 4m. cloak, garment
105 sērius later (Pramus 107 is subject)
106 puluis puluer-is 3m. dust
expallēscō 3 expalluī turn pale
107 tingō 3tīnxī tīnctum tinge
108 ūna . . . amantēs: a fine antithesis, at such an agonising moment
110 nocēns nocent-is guilty
mise
rand-us a um pitiable
perimō 3 perēmī kill, destroy
111 uenīrēs: iussī here is followed by the subj.
112 dīuellō 3 tear apart
113 scelerāt-us a um accursed (a ringing golden line)
cōnsūmō 3 eat up
uīscera-um 3n. pl. entrails
mors-us ūs 4m. bite
114 ō quīcumque: take with leōnēs
habitō 1 live
rūp-ēs is 3f. rock
leō leōn-is 3m. lion
115 timidī est: ‘it is [the characteristic] of the timidus . . .’, cf. RLL(d)1
optāre: i.e. only/merely to wish for death
nex nec-is 3f. death
Thisbēs: Greek gen. s.
118 haust-us ūs 4m. draught
119 quōque: refers to ferrum
accingō 3 accīnxī accīnctus gird oneself, put round oneself
dēmittō 3 dēmīsī sink
īli-a um 3n. pl. groin
120 feruēns feruent-is fresh, hot
121 resupīn-us a um on one’s back
ēmicō 1 leap, spurt
122 quam cum: + ind., ‘than when’
uitiāt-us a um faulty
fistul-a ae 1f. (water-)pipe
plumb-um ī 2n. lead
123 scindō 3 split
stridēns strident-is hissing
forāmen forāmin-is 3n. hole
124 ēiaculor 1 dep. pump out
ict-us ūs 4m. impact, blow
rumpō 3 rip through, break
125 arbore-us a um of a tree
*fēt-us ūs 4m. fruit
adspergō adspergin-is 3f. spattering
*āter ātr-a um black
126 madefact-us a um soaked
rādīx rādīc-is 3f. root. A root soaked in blood would not from then on deliver a dark red tinge to the berries, but it makes a good story
127 purpure-us a um purple (almost a golden line)
tingō 3 tinge
130 uītō 1 avoid. uītārit = uītāuerit (RLA4), subj. in an indirect question after nārrāre
gestiō 4 desire keenly (to + inf.)
131 fōrmam: i.e. the shape of the tree where they had agreed to meet
132 incertam: i.e. Thisbe – she cannot understand why the tree has changed colour
haec: i.e. the (proper) tree
133 tremebund-us a um trembling
pulsō 1 writhe on (+ acc.)