Tom Snout is a character in William Shakespeare's ''

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a Comedy (drama), comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One s ...

''. He is a

tinker Tinker or tinkerer is an archaic term for an wikt:itinerant, itinerant tinsmith who mends household utensils. Description ''Tinker'' for metal-worker is attested from the thirteenth century as ''tyckner'' or ''tinkler''. Some travelling grou ...

, and one of the " mechanicals" of

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, amateur players in '' Pyramus and Thisbe'', a play within the play. In the play-within-a-play, Snout plays the wall which separates Pyramus' and Thisbe's gardens. In '' Pyramus and Thisbe'', the two lovers whisper to each other through Snout's fingers (representing a gap in the wall). Snout has eight lines under the name of Tom Snout, and two lines as ''The Wall''. He is the Wall for Act V-Scene 1. Snout was originally set to play Pyramus's father, but the need for a wall was greater, so he discharged ''The Wall''. Snout is often portrayed as a reluctant actor and very frightened, but the other mechanicals (except Nick Bottom and Peter Quince) are usually much more frightened than Tom Snout). Snout's name, like that of the other mechanicals, is a

metonym Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something associated with that thing or concept. For example, the word "wikt:suit, suit" may refer to a person from groups commonly wearing business attire, such ...

and derives from his craft: "Snout" means a nozzle or a spout, a feature of the kettles a tinker often mends.

References

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* * Fictional artisans Fictional actors Male Shakespearean characters Characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream Literary characters introduced in 1596 Fictional Greek people Fictional mechanics {{Lit-char-stub