To all other eyes, Demetrius and Lysander are virtually interchangeable. The stress throughout the play is not on the lovers’ ultimate distinctiveness but on their interchangeability. ‘Demetrius is a worthy gentleman’, Theseus tells Hermia, trying to persuade her of her father’s preference. ‘So is Lysander’, comes the reply (1.1.52–3). Lysander urges his own claim as equivalence rather than superiority: ‘I am, my lord, as well derived as he, / As well possessed’ (1.1.99–100).
