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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 3Scene 1
Back to the Play
“If I were fair…”
Humor
Act 3,
Scene 1
Lines 94-100

An explanation of Bottom’s humorous line in Act 3, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Quince

your part at once, cues and all. — Pyramus, enter. Your
cue is past; it is “never tire.”

Flute

O!
[As Thisbe]
As true as truest horse that yet would never tire.
[Enter Robin and Bottom, whose head has been transformed by Robin into that of an ass. He recites his line as he comes around the hedge.]

Bottom (as Pyramus)

If I were fair, Thisbe, I were only thine.

Quince

O monstrous! O strange! We are haunted. Pray,
Masters, fly, masters. Help!

Pyramus’ line means something like "Even if I were most handsome, I would still only want you." But coming from Bottom with his ass’s head, it sounds as if he's saying, "If only I didn’t look like an ass, I could be yours."