The artisans then perform the play of “Pyramus and Thisbe” with all of the expected mistakes and silliness. Quince mangles the prologue (or introduction) of the play, the wall and lion speak, and Bottom – after he as Pyramus has committed suicide – gets up and speaks directly to the audience. Another comical blunder is having the artisan Starveling, who plays the man in the moon, speak. Starveling explains that the lantern he is holding represents the moon and that he represents the man in the moon. But if Starveling is the man in the moon, then he should be inside the lantern.
Theseus and the other aristocrats comment upon the dialogue and action as the play proceeds, but they enjoy the play-within-a-play nevertheless. After the wall speaks, for example, two members of the audience make the following remarks:
THESEUS
Would you desire lime and hair to speak better?
DEMETRIUS
It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard discourse, my lord. (164-66)
Both Theseus and Demetrius find it quite comical and amusing that a wall can speak, but they add to the fun (and humor) of the situation by contributing jokes. Lime and hair (or straw), the ingredients used in making a wall, could not speak better since lime and hair cannot speak at all. And even though the artisan Snout, who plays the wall, is actually lacking in wit, he is still the wittiest wall in Athens (or London) since he is the only wall with the power of speech.
Hippolyta, though, may not be enjoying the play as much as her husband:
HIPPOLYTA
This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.
THESEUS
The best in this kind are but shadows, and the worst are no worse if imagination mend them. (207-09)
Theseus is commenting that all actors are shadows or reflections of real people. Even the best actors require the imagination of the audience to make their characters transform into something real and believable. And since the imagination of the audience is mandatory to make a play believable, Theseus argues that the people in the audience just need to use their imaginations somewhat more in order to make even a bad performance into something believable and delightful. Theseus enjoys the play more than does Hippolyta because he uses his imagination more in order to envision the play as it should be performed.
At the end of the play, Bottom offers the aristocrats the choice of hearing an epilogue (or closing speech) or seeing a bergamask dance. Even the extremely tolerant Theseus can no longer tolerate any more bad speeches, so he asks for the dance.
Then Bottom and Flute (who played Thisbe and would thus still be wearing a dress) dance for their Duke. The bergamask dance was named after its place of origin – Bergamo, Italy. It was a simple country dance that the people of London would find unsophisticated and perhaps a bit awkward. With the awkward artisans dancing it, the performance would most assuredly be silly and ridiculous. The director most likely called for the dancers to step on each others’ feet and perhaps even to fall down once or twice during the performance. Clownish dances at the end of comedies were not uncommon during the Renaissance. And although “Pyramus and Thisbe” was not a comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is.