Talk:Pyramus and Thisbe
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It it really sensible to print the whole story here? – Torsten Bronger 21:15, 22 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Should be moved to Wikisource if it isn't already there. Anyone opposed? 69.251.98.253 20:18, 2 September 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Cart before horse
- The story resembles the plot of Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, and is performed to comic effect in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act V, sc 1). The latter play-within-a-play fragment was performed by the Beatles in their first US television special. The story also forms the thematic basis for the musical The Fantasticks.
I don't think this ancient story owes anything to Shakespeare. Bulfinch did not write it: he re-told it, based on writings dating from ancient Rome.
It would be more interesting if anyone could tell us whether Shakespeare was conscious of this story when writing Romeo and Juliet. The idea of a man committing suicide because he thought his young lover to be dead, and then the girl killing herself upon really discovering his corpse, may have been known to the Bard.
And is a TV special by the Beatles really relevant here? And what part of the story relates to the Fantasticks? Uncle Ed 00:28, 30 September 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Yes and No?
In reguard to Shakespeare's knowledge of the story, I might have something. On page 248 of "World Mythology" by Donna Rosenberg (Third ed.) Rosenberg states that "he [Shakespeare] included a humorous version of "Pyramus and Thisbe" in "A Midsummer Night's Drea." Moreover, although Ovid was not Shakespeare's source for "Romeo and Juliet,""Pyramus and Thisbe" obviously influenced Shapkespeare's sources, and Shakespeare's version is the finest version of this myth."
I'm not too good at this whole wikipedia thing, but I hope that helps.
Something's wrong with this page. It has vandalism, but I don't know how to change it. It's not on the edit page. Look under "adaptations".
