Original: Asleep, my love?
Modern: Are you sleeping, my love?

Original: What, dead, my dove?
Modern: What? Are you dead, my darling?

Original: O Pyramus, arise!
Modern: Oh Pyramus, get up!

Original: Speak, speak. Quite dumb?
Modern: Say something, say something! Completely silent?

Original: Dead, dead? A tomb
Modern: Dead, really dead? A grave

Original: Must cover thy sweet eyes.
Modern: Must cover your sweet eyes.

Original: These My lips,
Modern: These lips of yours,

Original: This cherry nose,
Modern: This red nose,

Original: These yellow cowslip cheeks,
Modern: These pale yellow cheeks,

Original: Are gone, are gone:
Modern: Are gone forever, gone forever.

Original: Lovers, make moan:
Modern: All lovers, mourn with me.

Original: His eyes were green as leeks.
Modern: His eyes were as green as leeks.

Original: O Sisters Three,
Modern: Oh you three Fates,

Original: Come, come to me,
Modern: Come here, come here to me,

Original: With hands as pale as milk;
Modern: With your hands as white as milk.

Original: Lay them in gore,
Modern: Dip them in blood,

Original: Since you have shore
Modern: Since you have cut

Original: With shears his thread of silk.
Modern: With your scissors the delicate thread of his life.

Original: Tongue, not a word:
Modern: Tongue, be silent—no more words.

Original: Come, trusty sword;
Modern: Come here, reliable sword.

Original: Come, blade, my breast imbrue:
Modern: Come, blade, and stain my chest with blood.

Original: And, farewell, friends;
Modern: And goodbye, friends.

Original: Thus Thisby ends:
Modern: This is how Thisbe’s story ends.

Original: Adieu, adieu, adieu.
Modern: Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.

Act V, Scene i of A Midsummer Night’s Dream takes place at the palace of Theseus in Athens, where the Duke and Hippolyta, along with the newly married couples Lysander and Hermia and Demetrius and Helena, have gathered to celebrate the wedding festivities. Theseus calls for entertainment to pass the hours before midnight, and his master of revels, Philostrate, presents him with a list of possible performances. Theseus selects the play offered by the mechanicals — a tragic rendering of Pyramus and Thisby — despite Philostrate’s warnings that the performance is crude and the actors unskilled. Hippolyta expresses reservations about watching a poor performance, but Theseus insists that the goodwill of the performers matters more than the quality of the show, and the play is announced.

The mechanicals — Bottom, Quince, Flute, Snout, Starveling, and Snug — then perform their production of Pyramus and Thisby before the assembled court. Quince delivers a comically mangled prologue, and the players present their roles with broad incompetence, including Snout standing in as the Wall and Starveling as Moonshine. The aristocratic audience watches and comments freely, often mocking the performance with witty asides. Bottom, playing Pyramus, and Flute, playing Thisby, carry out the tragic conclusion of the lovers’ deaths with unintentional humor. After the play concludes, Bottom offers an epilogue, which Theseus declines, instead calling for a dance, after which the couples retire to bed and Puck enters to begin his closing speech.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream follows multiple interconnected plots that unfold over the course of a single midsummer night in Athens and the nearby enchanted forest. The play opens with Duke Theseus of Athens preparing to marry Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. Meanwhile, Egeus brings his daughter Hermia before Theseus, demanding she marry Demetrius according to his wishes. Hermia refuses because she loves Lysander, and Theseus gives her until his wedding day to decide between marrying Demetrius, becoming a nun, or facing death. Hermia and Lysander plan to elope by meeting in the forest, and they confide in Hermia’s friend Helena, who is desperately in love with Demetrius despite his rejection of her.

In the forest, the fairy king Oberon and queen Titania are feuding over custody of a changeling boy. Oberon instructs his mischievous servant Puck to fetch a magical flower whose juice, when applied to sleeping eyes, makes the person fall in love with the first creature they see upon waking. Oberon plans to use this on Titania to humiliate her into giving up the boy, and he also orders Puck to help Helena by making Demetrius fall in love with her. However, Puck mistakenly applies the juice to Lysander’s eyes instead, causing him to fall in love with Helena when he awakens. Meanwhile, a group of Athenian craftsmen rehearsing a play in the forest becomes entangled in the magical chaos when Puck transforms their leader Bottom’s head into that of a donkey, and the enchanted Titania falls in love with him.

The romantic confusion deepens when Oberon discovers Puck’s error and applies the love juice to Demetrius’s eyes as well, causing both young men to pursue Helena, who believes they are mocking her. Hermia becomes confused and angry when Lysander rejects her for Helena. Oberon orders Puck to separate the four lovers and fix the situation. After obtaining the changeling boy from the distracted Titania, Oberon releases her from the spell and restores Bottom to his normal form. Puck leads the exhausted lovers through the forest until they fall asleep, then applies an antidote to Lysander’s eyes so he will love Hermia again upon waking. Theseus discovers the four lovers in the forest the next morning, and since Demetrius now truly loves Helena, the duke overrules Egeus and declares a triple wedding. The play concludes with the three couples’ wedding celebration, where the craftsmen perform their comically inept play, followed by the fairies blessing the palace and its inhabitants.