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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 5Scene 1
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“alack”
Humor
Act 5,
Scene 1
Lines 169-180

An explanation of the humor in the repeated word “alack” in Act 5, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. ​

Bottom (as Pyramus)

O grim-looked night, O night with hue so black,
O night which ever art when day is not,
O night, O night, alack, alack, alack,
I fear my Thisbe's promise is forgot.
And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall
That stand'st between her father's ground and mine,
Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,
Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne.
[Snout, as Wall, indicates the slit with his hand]
Thanks, courteous wall. Jove shield thee well for this.
But what see I? No Thisbe do I see.
O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss,
Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me.

As you can tell, Quince is not the most sophisticated of playwrights. To say that it’s night when it’s not day is hardly a profound observation. And the repetition in “O night, O night, alack, alack, alack” sounds like a parody of tragic poetry.