By surrounding the inept "
Pyramus and Thisby" with the more "artful" MND, Shakespeare manages to make a distinction between good "plays" and bad "drama." As Stephen Greenblatt notes in his introduction to the play in the Norton Shakespeare, "whatever its [Pyramus and Thisby] meaning, its existence is closely linked to the nature of the theater itself" (809).
This gendered division is explicit in the scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream where the "rude mechanicals" are preparing to stage their production of "
Pyramus and Thisby." When Flute is assigned the role of Thisby, he protests: "Nay faith let me not play a woman, I have a beard coming" (1.2.47-48).
Entirely comfortable in their rustic roles, they make "the most lamentable comedy" of "
Pyramus and Thisby" (the Bard's ingenious play within his play), this production's highlight.