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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 5Scene 1
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The Fates
Mythological Reference
Act 5,
Scene 1
Lines 266-281

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

Bottom (as Pyramus)

Sweet moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams.
I thank thee, moon, for shining now so bright;
For by thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams
I trust to take of truest Thisbe sight.
[Seeing Thisbe's bloody cloak on the ground]
But stay! O spite!
But mark, poor night,
What dreadful dole is here?
Eyes, do you see?
How can it be?
O dainty duck, O dear!
Thy mantle good,
What, stained with blood?
Approach, ye Furies fell.
O Fates, come, come,
Cut thread and thrum,
Quail, crush, conclude, and quell.

The Fates are set of three goddesses, often depicted sitting at a loom weaving a tapestry that depicts someone’s life story. Pyramus is imagining them weaving his story, and he calls on them to "cut thread and thrum," technical terms for the fibers being woven. The cutting of these fibers would symbolize the end of his life. Since Bottom, who’s playing the role of Pyramus, is a weaver by trade, it's only appropriate that he invokes the Fates.