idol used then to be buried in fields.) And near this
grave was a spring. And, to tell this tale shortly, this
covenant was very strongly confirmed. To them it
seemed that the sun delayed for a long time before it
went down under the sea. 792
This Thisbe had so great a feeling and desire to see
Pyramus that when she saw her time she stole away
secretly at night with her face deceptively wimpled35.
To keep her pledge she forsook all her friends, Alas! It
is pity that a woman should ever be so faithful to trust
man, unless she knew him better! She went to the tree
at a swift pace, for her love made her so hardy; and
down beside the spring she settled herself. Alas!
Without more ado a wild lioness, with mouth bloody
from strangling some beast, came out of the wood to
drink at the spring where Thisbe was sitting. And when
Thisbe saw that, she started up, with heart all terrified,
and with fearful foot fled into a cave, which she saw
well by the moon. And as she ran she let fall her
wimple and did not notice it, so sorely was she
dismayed, and so glad of her escape as well. And thus
she sat in hiding very quietly. When the lioness had
drunk her fill, she roamed about the spring, and soon
found the wimple, and tore it all to pieces with her
bloody mouth. When this was done, she delayed no
longer but made her way to the woods. 822
At last this Pyramus came, but, alas, he had stayed too
long at home. The moon shone, and he could see well,
and in his way, as he came speedily, he cast his eyes
down to the ground, and as he looked down he saw the
wide tracks of a lion in the sand, and he suddenly
shuddered in his heart and grew pale and his hair stood
on end; and he came nearer, and found the torn
wimple. “Alas! “he said. “Alas, the day that I was
born! This one night will slay both us lovers! How
should I ask mercy of Thisbe, when I am he who have
slain her, alas! My prayer to you to come has slain you!
Alas, to tell a woman to go by night to a place where
peril might occur! And I so slow! Alas! If only I had
been here in this place a furlong before you! Now may
whatever lion there is in this forest tear apart my body;
or whatever wild beast there is, now may it gnaw my
heart!” 844
And with these words he sprang to the wimple, and
kissed it often, and wept over it sorely and said, “Alas,
wimple! There is nothing else, except that you shall
feel my blood as well as you have felt the bleeding of
Thisbe. And with these words he struck himself to the
heart. The blood gushed out of the wound as broad as
water when the pipe is broken. 852