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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 5Scene 1
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"ye Furies"
Mythological Reference
Act 5,
Scene 1
Lines 266-275

An explanation of Bottoms’ reference to the furies 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!

The Furies were three goddesses of the underworld who were summoned to inflict revenge on someone. The Pyramus character is blaming the Furies for Thisbe’s death and calling on them to come kill him also.