You are here

All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 5Scene 1
Back to the Play
"lime and hair"
Cultural Context
Act 5,
Scene 1
Lines 155-167

An explanation of Theseus’ reference to “lime and hair” in Act 5, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Snout (as Wall)

In this same interlude it doth befall
That I, one Snout by name, present a wall,
And such a wall as I would have you think
That had in it a crannied hole or chink,
Through which the lovers Pyramus and Thisbe
Did whisper often, very secretly.
This loam, this roughcast, and this stone doth show
That I am that same wall; the truth is so.
And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.

Theseus

Would you desire lime and hair to speak better?

Demetrius

It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard
discourse, my lord.

Sometimes animal hair was mixed into the plaster for house walls to make it hold together better.