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Stand forth, Demetrius.—My noble lord, This man hath my consent to marry her:— Stand forth, Lysander;—and, my gracious duke, This man hath bewitch’d the bosom of my child. Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes, 30 And interchang’d love-tokens with my child:
Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung, With feigning voice, verses of feigning love; And stol’n the impression of her fantasy With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits, 35 Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats,—messengers Of strong prevailment in unharden’d youth;— With cunning hast thou filch’d my daughter’s heart; Turned her obedience, which is due to me, To stubborn harshness.—And,
I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,— As she is mine I may dispose of her: Which shall be either to this gentleman 45 Or to her death; according to our law Immediately provided in that case.
To you your father should be as a god; One that compos’d your beauties: yea, and one 50 To whom you are but as a form in wax, By him imprinted, and within his power To leave the figure, or disfigure it.
Either to die the death, or to abjure For ever the society of men.
You have her father’s love, Demetrius; Let me have Hermia’s: do you marry him.
I am, my lord, as well deriv’d as he, As well possess’d; my love is more than his; My fortunes every way as fairly rank’d,
Demetrius, I’ll avouch it to his head, Made love to Nedar’s daughter, Helena, 110 And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes, Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry, Upon this spotted and inconstant man.
Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth:
HERMIA O hell! to choose love by another’s eye!
The jaws of darkness do devour it up: So quick bright things come to confusion.
HERMIA I frown upon him, yet he loves me still. HELENA O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill! HERMIA I give him curses, yet he gives me love. HELENA 200 O that my prayers could such affection move! HERMIA The more I hate, the more he follows me. HELENA The more I love, the more he hateth me. HERMIA His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is wing’d Cupid painted blind.
I will go tell him of fair Hermia’s flight; Then to the wood will he to-morrow night Pursue her; and for this intelligence If I have thanks, it is a dear expense: But herein mean I to enrich my pain, 255 To have his sight thither and back again.
HELENA And even for that do I love you the more. I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius, The more you beat me, I will fawn on you: Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me, 210 Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave, Unworthy as I am, to follow you. What worser place can I beg in your love, And yet a place of high respect with me,— Than to be usèd as you use your dog?
We cannot fight for love as men may do: We should be woo’d, and were not made to woo. I’ll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell, To die upon the hand I love so well.
A sweet Athenian lady is in love With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes; But do it when the next thing he espies May be the lady: thou shalt know the man By the Athenian garments he hath on. 270 Effect it with some care, that he may prove More fond on her than she upon her love: And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.
Do it for thy true-love take; Love and languish for his sake; Be it ounce, or cat, or bear, 30 Pard, or boar with bristled hair, In thy eye that shall appear When thou wak’st, it is thy dear; Wake when some vile thing is near.
Things growing are not ripe until their season; So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason; And touching now the point of human skill, Reason becomes the marshal to my will, 120 And leads me to your eyes, where I o’erlook Love’s stories, written in love’s richest book.
An ass’s nowl I fixed on his head; Anon, his Thisbe must be answerèd, And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy, 20 As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye, Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort, Rising and cawing at the gun’s report, Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky, So at his sight away his fellows fly:
When in that moment,—so it came to pass,— Titania wak’d, and straightway lov’d an ass.
OBERON Flower of this purple dye, Hit with Cupid’s archery, Sink in apple of his eye! 105 When his love he doth espy, Let her shine as gloriously As the Venus of the sky.— When thou wak’st, if she be by, Beg of her for remedy.
O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine! To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne? Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show 140 Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow! That pure congealèd white, high Taurus’ snow, Fann’d with the eastern wind, turns to a crow When thou hold’st up thy hand: O, let me kiss This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!
See as thou was wont to see. Dian’s bud o’er Cupid’s flower 70 Hath such force and blessed power. Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.
To her, my lord, Was I betroth’d ere I saw Hermia: But, like a sickness, did I loathe this food; But, as in health, come to my natural taste, Now I do wish it, love it, long for it, 175 And will for evermore be true to it.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact:
If we shadows have offended, Think but this,—and all is mended,— 410 That you have but slumber’d here While these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend; 415 If you pardon, we will mend. And, as I am an honest Puck, If we have unearnèd luck Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue, We will make amends ere long; 420 Else the Puck a liar call: So, good night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends, And Robin shall restore amends.
