Pyramus and Thisbe are star-crossed lovers, and many believe they provided the inspiration for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Both couples had sad fates. Pyramus and Thisbe were next door neighbors, but sadly their families hated one another. Because they lived next door, their homes shared a wall. In this wall was a tiny crack that allowed the two lovers to communicate. Madly in love, the two devised a plan: they would sneak out in the middle of the night and run off together. The plan was to meet by a mulberry tree and elope. Thisbe gets there first, but sees a lioness all bloody from hunting. She runs off, accidentally leaving a piece of her clothing behind. The lioness sniffs it and gets blood on it. As a result, when Pyramus arrives, he believes Thisbe has been killed. In despair, he kills himself. Thisbe later returns to find Pyramus dead, and she decides to join him by killing herself. The two lovers met a sad end, all because their families hated each other so much.
