1. On p. 13, 1.2.10, Peter Quince calls the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe “The most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe”. Yet, on p. 65, 5.1.59-58, the play Egeus describes the play instead as “A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus and his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.”
2. In p. 14-5, 1.2.50-5, Robin Starveling, Peter Quince, and Tom Snout are assigned to be Thisbe’s mother, Thisbe’s father, and Pyramus father, respectively. But these latter characters don’t exist in their final performance for the nobles in 5.1. Instead, Starveling and Snout are Moonshine and the Wall,-roles created in p. 33, 3.1.52-63-and Peter Quince doesn’t have any part at all in the lamentable comedy, besides giving the prologue.
3. Bottom requests Quince to make his well-intended prologue in “eight and eight”. (p. 32, 3.1.23-4). His actual prologue (p. 67, 5.1.112-121 and p. 68-9, 5.1.130-54)
4.
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The beginning lines of Bottom and Flute as seen in p. 34, 3.1.72-92, do not appear in the beginning of their final play in p. 69-70, 5.1.173-207.
Obviously, the play does change. However, there’s one fascinating change in particular that is also connected to the overall action of AMND: Starveling, Quince, and Snout all taking on entirely different characters at the end of the play than what they were first assigned (No. 2).
Despite the fact that the original intent was for them to try to keep Pyramus and Thisbe apart, Starveling ends up helping the lovers. Snout as the Wall both helps and hurts them: the wall separates Pyramus and Thisbe, while the hole gives them a method of communication in the face of