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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 5Scene 1
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“sisters three”
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Act 5,
Scene 1
Lines 318-341

An explanation of the reference to “sisters three” in Act 5, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Flute (as Thisbe)

Asleep, my love?
What, dead, my dove?
O Pyramus, arise.
Speak, speak. Quite dumb?
Dead, dead? A tomb
Must cover thy sweet eyes.
These lily lips,
This cherry nose,
These yellow cowslip cheeks
Are gone, are gone.
Lovers, make moan.
His eyes were green as leeks.
O sisters three,
Come, come to me
With hands as pale as milk.
Lay them in gore,
Since you have shore
With shears his thread of silk.
Tongue, not a word.
Come, trusty sword,
Come, blade, my breast imbrue.
[She stabs herself]
And farewell friends,
Thus Thisbe ends.
Adieu, adieu, adieu.

Thisbe is picturing the three Fates (see note at line 281) sitting at their loom weaving the tapestry of her life. She calls on them to cut the thread, ending her life but leaving them with blood ("gore") on their hands.

Time and The Three Fates, Pieter Thijs, c. 1665