Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover; and prove an ass.

 

Theseus

A Midsummer Night’s Dream     Act V, Scene i, Line 299

I no longer hate this play, and I think that is mostly because of the townsmen who perform the play within the play. Today’s Line is from the last scene of the play, and it is in this scene that the play within the play is being performed. The audience of this play within the play spends a lot of time commenting on the play within the play as it is being performed, and that’s what Today’s Line is. Lysander has just remarked that Pyramus is now dead, after the latter stabbed himself on stage and then spent several minutes dying. Thesus appears to be employing sarcasm when he says that Pyramus might yet recover, after the actor spent so much time dying, and repeating over and over again die, die, die. I guess Thesus’s comment that Pyramus might also prove an ass is his way of commenting on the overacting that took place in the act of dying.

Remember, it’s a comedy!

He says it's a comedy, Mrs. Blagys, but I don't get it.

Neither do I, Mojo. Just humor him; that's what I do.