O grim-look’d night! O night with hue so black!
O night, which ever art when day is not!
O night, O night! alack, alack, alack,
I fear my Thisbe’s promise is forgot!
And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,
That stand’st between her father’s ground and mine!
Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,
Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne!
[Wall holds up his fingers]
Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for this!
But what see I? No Thisbe do I see.
O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss!
Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me!
– William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, Scene 1. Bottom plumbs the depths of ridiculousness with his opening words in the heroic role of the doomed Pyramus. His impassioned language and attempt at grandiose speech in a tragic love story is the stuff of comedy. His excessive repetition of "O" and "alack" adds to the humor. As does his explaining to his audience of nobles that night is "when day is not." Also his ludicrous conversation with the wall: "O sweet and lovely wall." Not to mention the repeated exclamations and feeble attempt at poetry with alternating rhyme and internal rhyme.