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.