Francis Flute Quotes

QUINCE: Flute, you must take Thisbe on you.
FLUTE: What is Thisbe? – a wand’ring knight?
QUINCE: It is the lady that Pyramus must love.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 2. In the play that the Athenian craftsmen are to perform in celebration of Duke Theseus’ wedding, director Quince gives the part of Thisbe to bellows-maker Francis Flute. Flute is happy to play such a manly role when he thinks Thisbe is a wandering knight. But he is disappointed and unhappy when he discovers that Thisebe is instead a woman in love.

Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue,
Of colour like the red rose on triumphant brier,
Most brisky juvenal and eke most lovely Jew,
As true as truest horse, that yet would never tire.
I’ll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny’s tomb.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, Scene 1. Bellows-mender Francis Flute, playing Thisbe, provides some humor and laughs, when he delivers these memorably terrible lines about Pyramus. He uses a simile to compare Pyramus’ color to a red rose, and at the same time says it is lily-white. He calls the meeting place "Ninny’s tomb" (meaning idiot’s tomb) instead of Ninus’ tomb. He refers to Pyramus as a "most lovely Jew" instead of jewel. An irritated Quince immediately corrects Flute: "’Ninus’ tomb,’ man." The story of Pyramus and Thiste takes place in ancient city of Babylon (modern day Iraq). Babylon, according to legend, was founded by King Ninus some 4,000 ago.

O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a day during his life. He could not have ‘scaped sixpence a day. An the Duke had not given him sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I’ll be hanged. He would have deserved it. Sixpence a day in Pyramus, or nothing.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 4, Scene 2. With Bottom gone missing, Flute bemoans that Bottom has missed the chance to perform for the Duke and earn a pension of sixpence a day in reward for playing Pyramus.

BOTTOM [as Pyramus]: Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover’s grace;
And, like Limander, am I trusty still.
FLUTE [as Thisbe]: And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, Scene 1. Pyramus (Bottom) and Thisbe (Flute) declare fidelity to one another. But there are a few flaws in director Quince’s script. Limander is a malapropism for Leander, showing that Quince is not as well acquainted with classical literature as he might like to make out. Flute also compares his character Thisbe’s faithfulness to that of mythological Greek princess Helen. This seems an odd comparison. For when King Menelaus’s wife Helen was abducted by Trojan prince Paris and brought to Troy, some versions of the legend suggest that she willingly ran off with him.

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!…
His eyes were green as leeks…
With hands as pale as milk.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, Scene 1. Flute, playing Thisbe, laments Pyramus’ death in a very comical style, first asking if he is asleep or dead. Then using a series of metaphors he gives us a humorous description of the dead Pyramus. He tells us of his “lily lips,” “cherry nose” and “cowslip cheeks.” However, his facial colors are mismatched, the lips should be cherry-colored, while cowslip yellow cheeks are a sign of someone who is diseased. He also uses a number of ill-chosen similes – “eyes were green as leeks” and “hands as pale as milk.”
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