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Thisbe
Pyramus and Thisbe are a pair of ill-fated lovers whose story forms part of Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''. The story has since been retold by many authors. Pyramus and Thisbe are two lovers in the city of Babylon who occupy connected houses. Their respective parents, driven by rivalry, forbid them to wed. Through a crack in one of the walls they whisper their love for each other. They arrange to meet near a tomb under a mulberry tree and state their feelings for each other. Thisbe arrives first, but upon seeing a lioness with a bloody mouth from a recent kill, she flees, leaving behind her cloak. When Pyramus arrives, he is horrified at the sight of Thisbe's cloak: the lioness had torn it and left traces of blood behind, as well as its tracks. Assuming that a wild beast has killed her, Pyramus kills himself, falling on his sword, a typical Babylonian way to commit suicide, and in turn splashing blood on the white mulberry leaves. Pyramus's blood stains the white mulberry fruits, tu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thisbe - John William Waterhouse
Pyramus and Thisbe are a pair of ill-fated lovers whose story forms part of Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''. The story has since been retold by many authors. Pyramus and Thisbe are two lovers in the city of Babylon who occupy connected houses. Their respective parents, driven by rivalry, forbid them to wed. Through a crack in one of the walls they whisper their love for each other. They arrange to meet near a tomb under a mulberry tree and state their feelings for each other. Thisbe arrives first, but upon seeing a lioness with a bloody mouth from a recent kill, she flees, leaving behind her cloak. When Pyramus arrives, he is horrified at the sight of Thisbe's cloak: the lioness had torn it and left traces of blood behind, as well as its tracks. Assuming that a wild beast has killed her, Pyramus kills himself, falling on his sword, a typical Babylonian way to commit suicide, and in turn splashing blood on the white mulberry leaves. Pyramus's blood stains the white mulberry fruits, turni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Midsummer Night's Dream
''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict among four Athenian lovers. Another follows a group of six amateur actors rehearsing the play which they are to perform before the wedding. Both groups find themselves in a forest inhabited by fairies who manipulate the humans and are engaged in their own domestic intrigue. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular and is widely performed. Characters * Theseus—Duke of Athens * Hippolyta—Queen of the Amazons * Egeus—father of Hermia * Hermia—daughter of Egeus, in love with Lysander * Lysander—in love with Hermia * Demetrius—suitor to Hermia * Helena—in love with Demetrius * Philostrate— Master of the Revels * Peter Quince—a carpenter * Nick Bottom—a weaver * Francis Flute—a bellows-mender * Tom Snout—a tink ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mechanical (character)
The mechanicals are six characters in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' who perform the play-within-a-play '' Pyramus and Thisbe''. They are a group of amateur and mostly incompetent actors from around Athens, looking to make names for themselves by having their production chosen among several acts as the courtly entertainment for the royal wedding party of Theseus and Hippolyta. The servant-spirit Puck describes them as "rude mechanicals" in Act III, Scene 2 of the play, in reference to their occupations as skilled manual laborers. The biggest ham among them, Bottom, becomes the unlikely object of interest for the fairy queen Titania after she is charmed by a love potion and he is turned into a monster with the head of an ass by Puck. Peter Quince Peter Quince's name is derived from "quines" or " quoins", which are the strengthening blocks that form the outer corners of stone or brickwork in a building. Playwriting Quince's amateurish playwriting is usually taken to be a paro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Legend Of Good Women
''The Legend of Good Women'' is a poem in the form of a dream vision by Geoffrey Chaucer during the fourteenth century. The poem is the third longest of Chaucer's works, after ''The Canterbury Tales'' and '' Troilus and Criseyde'', and is possibly the first significant work in English to use the iambic pentameter or decasyllabic couplets which he later used throughout ''The Canterbury Tales''. This form of the heroic couplet would become a significant part of English literature possibly inspired by Chaucer. Summary Prologue The prologue describes how Chaucer is reprimanded by the god of love and his queen, Alceste, for his works—such as ''Troilus and Criseyde''—depicting women in a poor light. Criseyde is made to seem inconstant in love in that earlier work, and Alceste demands a poem of Chaucer extolling the virtues of women and their good deeds. The incomplete nature of the poem is suggested by Chaucer's Retraction from ''The Canterbury Tales'' which calls t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metamorphoses (poem)
The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his '' magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar in a mythico-historical framework comprising over 250 myths, 15 books, and 11,995 lines. Although it meets some of the criteria for an epic, the poem defies simple genre classification because of its varying themes and tones. Ovid took inspiration from the genre of metamorphosis poetry and some of the ''Metamorphoses'' derives from earlier treatment of the same myths; however, he diverged significantly from all of his models. One of the most influential works in Western culture, the ''Metamorphoses'' has inspired such authors as Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William Shakespeare. Numerous episodes from the poem have been depicted in works of sculpture, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Romeo And Juliet
''Romeo and Juliet'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with ''Hamlet'', is one of his most frequently performed plays. Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers. ''Romeo and Juliet'' belongs to a tradition of tragic romances stretching back to antiquity. The plot is based on an Italian tale translated into verse as '' The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet'' by Arthur Brooke in 1562 and retold in prose in '' Palace of Pleasure'' by William Painter in 1567. Shakespeare borrowed heavily from both but expanded the plot by developing a number of supporting characters, particularly Mercutio and Paris. Believed to have been written between 1591 and 1595, the play was first published in a quarto version in 1597. The text of the first quarto version was of poor quality, howeve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amoryus And Cleopes
''Amoryus and Cleopes'' is a poem written in 1449 by John Metham; it was an early English adaptation of the Pyramus and Thisbe narrative from Book 4 of Ovid‘s Metamorphoses. Author John Metham was very probably one of the sons of Sir Thomas Metham, who had held the position of High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1442 and 1459. Metham’s patrons, mentioned toward the end of the text, were Sir Miles Stapleton (d. 1466), an important nobleman in Norfolk during the middle part of the fifteenth century, and his wife, Katherine de la Pole, daughter of Sir Thomas de la Pole, uncle of William, Duke of Suffolk, oldest son of Michael de la Pole, the Earl of Suffolk. Synopsis The story of Amoryus and Cleopes begins after the Roman emperor Nero has conquered the realms of Persia and Media. Two Roman magistrates, Palamedon (Amoryus’s father) and Dydas (Cleopes’s father) are awarded control of the two realms. Before the background of prophecies and signs that foreshadow the downfall o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ovid
Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three Western canon, canonical poets of Latin literature. The Roman Empire, Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love wikt:elegist, elegists.Quint. ''Inst.'' 10.1.93 Although Ovid enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, the emperor Augustus banished him to Constanța, Tomis, a Dacian province on the Black Sea, where he remained a decade until his death. Overview A contemporary of the older poets Virgil and Horace, Ovid was the first major Roman poet to begin his career during Augustus's reign. Collectively, they are considered the three Western canon, canonical poets of Latin literature. The Roman Empire, Imperial scholar Quintilian described Ovid as the last of the Lati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morus (plant)
''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of diverse species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 identified species, three of which are well-known and are ostensibly named for the fruit color of the best-known cultivar: white, red, and black mulberry ('' Morus alba'', '' M. rubra'', and '' M. nigra'', respectively), with numerous cultivars. ''M. alba'' is native to South Asia, but is widely distributed across Europe, Southern Africa, South America, and North America. ''M. alba'' is also the species most preferred by the silkworm, and is regarded as an invasive species in Brazil and the United States. The closely related genus '' Broussonetia'' is also commonly known as mulberry, notably the paper mulberry (''Broussonetia papyrifera''). Description Mulberries are fast-growing when young, and can grow to tall. The leave ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ninus
Ninus ( el, Νίνος) was a mythology character who according to Greek historians writing in the Hellenistic period and later, was the founder of Nineveh (also called Νίνου πόλις "city of Ninus" in Greek), ancient capital of Assyria. In Hellenic historiography Many early accomplishments are attributed to Ninus, such as training the first hunting dogs, and taming horses for riding. For this accomplishment, he is sometimes represented in Greek mythology as a centaur. The figures of King Ninus and Queen Semiramis first appear in the history of Persia written by Ctesias of Cnidus (c. 400 BC), who claimed, as court physician to Artaxerxes II, to have access to the royal historical records. Ctesias' account was later expanded on by Diodorus Siculus. Ninus continued to be mentioned by European historians (e.g. Alfred the Great), until knowledge of cuneiform enabled a more precise reconstruction of Assyrian and Babylonian history from the mid 19th century onwards. He was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
On Famous Women
''De Mulieribus Claris'' or ''De Claris Mulieribus'' (Latin for "Concerning Famous Women") is a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in Latin prose in 1361–1362. It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in post-ancient Western literature. At the same time as he was writing ''On Famous Women'', Boccaccio also compiled a collection of biographies of famous men,'' De Casibus Virorum Illustrium'' (''On the Fates of Famous Men''). Purpose Boccaccio claimed to have written the 106 biographies for the posterity of the women who were considered renowned, whether good or bad. He believed that recounting the deeds of certain women who may have been wicked would be offset by the exhortations to virtue by the deeds of good women. He writes in his presentation of this combination of all types of women that he hoped it would encourage virtue and curb vice. Overview The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nick Bottom
Nick Bottom is a character in Shakespeare's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' who provides comic relief throughout the play. A weaver by trade, he is famously known for getting his head transformed into that of a donkey by the elusive Puck. Bottom and Puck are the only two characters who converse with and progress the three central stories in the whole play. Puck is first introduced in the fairies' story and creates the drama of the lovers' story by messing up who loves whom, and places the donkey head on Bottom's in his story. Similarly, Bottom is performing in a play in his story intending it to be presented in the lovers' story, as well as interacting with Titania in the fairie's story. Overview While they are in the woods rehearsing a play for the Duke, the fairy Puck, a mischievous sprite and minion of Oberon, king of the fairies, happens upon their rehearsal. He decides to have some fun with them, carrying out part of Oberon's orders in the process, and when Bottom ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
