Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

Act 3 - Scene 2

Another part of the wood.

Oberon : I wonder if Titania be awaked; [p]Then, what it was that next came in
her eye, [p]Which she must dote on in extremity. [p][Enter
PUCK] [p]Here comes my messenger. [p]How now, mad spirit! [p]What
night-rule now about this haunted grove?

Puck : My mistress with a monster is in love. [p]Near to her close and
consecrated bower, [p]While she was in her dull and sleeping
hour, [p]A crew of patches, rude mechanicals, [p]That work for bread
upon Athenian stalls, [p]Were met together to rehearse a
play [p]Intended for great Theseus' nuptial-day. [p]The shallowest
thick-skin of that barren sort, [p]Who Pyramus presented, in their
sport [p]Forsook his scene and enter'd in a brake [p]When I did him at
this advantage take, [p]An ass's nole I fixed on his head: [p]Anon his
Thisbe must be answered, [p]And forth my mimic comes. When they him
spy, [p]As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye, [p]Or russet-pated
choughs, many in sort, [p]Rising and cawing at the gun's
report, [p]Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky, [p]So, at his
sight, away his fellows fly; [p]And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er
one falls; [p]He murder cries and help from Athens calls. [p]Their
sense thus weak, lost with their fears [p]thus strong, [p]Made
senseless things begin to do them wrong; [p]For briers and thorns at
their apparel snatch; [p]Some sleeves, some hats, from yielders
all [p]things catch. [p]I led them on in this distracted fear, [p]And
left sweet Pyramus translated there: [p]When in that moment, so it
came to pass, [p]Titania waked and straightway loved an ass.

Oberon : This falls out better than I could devise. [p]But hast thou yet
latch'd the Athenian's eyes [p]With the love-juice, as I did bid thee
do?

Puck : I took him sleeping,--that is finish'd too,-- [p]And the Athenian
woman by his side: [p]That, when he waked, of force she must be eyed.

Oberon : Stand close: this is the same Athenian.

Puck : This is the woman, but not this the man.

Demetrius : O, why rebuke you him that loves you so? [p]Lay breath so bitter on
your bitter foe.

Hermia : Now I but chide; but I should use thee worse, [p]For thou, I fear,
hast given me cause to curse, [p]If thou hast slain Lysander in his
sleep, [p]Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep, [p]And kill
me too. [p]The sun was not so true unto the day [p]As he to me: would
he have stolen away [p]From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as
soon [p]This whole earth may be bored and that the moon [p]May through
the centre creep and so displease [p]Her brother's noontide with
Antipodes. [p]It cannot be but thou hast murder'd him; [p]So should a
murderer look, so dead, so grim.

Demetrius : So should the murder'd look, and so should I, [p]Pierced through the
heart with your stern cruelty: [p]Yet you, the murderer, look as
bright, as clear, [p]As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere.

Hermia : What's this to my Lysander? where is he? [p]Ah, good Demetrius, wilt
thou give him me?

Demetrius : I had rather give his carcass to my hounds.

Hermia : Out, dog! out, cur! thou drivest me past the bounds [p]Of maiden's
patience. Hast thou slain him, then? [p]Henceforth be never number'd
among men! [p]O, once tell true, tell true, even for my sake! [p]Durst
thou have look'd upon him being awake, [p]And hast thou kill'd him
sleeping? O brave touch! [p]Could not a worm, an adder, do so
much? [p]An adder did it; for with doubler tongue [p]Than thine, thou
serpent, never adder stung.

Demetrius : You spend your passion on a misprised mood: [p]I am not guilty of
Lysander's blood; [p]Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell.

Hermia : I pray thee, tell me then that he is well.

Demetrius : An if I could, what should I get therefore?

Hermia : A privilege never to see me more. [p]And from thy hated presence part
I so: [p]See me no more, whether he be dead or no.

Demetrius : There is no following her in this fierce vein: [p]Here therefore for a
while I will remain. [p]So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow [p]For
debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe: [p]Which now in some slight
measure it will pay, [p]If for his tender here I make some stay.

Oberon : What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken quite [p]And laid the
love-juice on some true-love's sight: [p]Of thy misprision must
perforce ensue [p]Some true love turn'd and not a false turn'd true.

Puck : Then fate o'er-rules, that, one man holding troth, [p]A million fail,
confounding oath on oath.

Oberon : About the wood go swifter than the wind, [p]And Helena of Athens look
thou find: [p]All fancy-sick she is and pale of cheer, [p]With sighs
of love, that costs the fresh blood dear: [p]By some illusion see thou
bring her here: [p]I'll charm his eyes against she do appear.

Puck : I go, I go; look how I go, [p]Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's
bow.

Oberon : Flower of this purple dye, [p]Hit with Cupid's archery, [p]Sink in
apple of his eye. [p]When his love he doth espy, [p]Let her shine as
gloriously [p]As the Venus of the sky. [p]When thou wakest, if she be
by, [p]Beg of her for remedy.

Puck : Captain of our fairy band, [p]Helena is here at hand; [p]And the
youth, mistook by me, [p]Pleading for a lover's fee. [p]Shall we their
fond pageant see? [p]Lord, what fools these mortals be!

Oberon : Stand aside: the noise they make [p]Will cause Demetrius to awake.

Puck : Then will two at once woo one; [p]That must needs be sport
alone; [p]And those things do best please me [p]That befal
preposterously.

Lysander : Why should you think that I should woo in scorn? [p]Scorn and derision
never come in tears: [p]Look, when I vow, I weep; and vows so
born, [p]In their nativity all truth appears. [p]How can these things
in me seem scorn to you, [p]Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them
true?

Helena : You do advance your cunning more and more. [p]When truth kills truth,
O devilish-holy fray! [p]These vows are Hermia's: will you give her
o'er? [p]Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh: [p]Your
vows to her and me, put in two scales, [p]Will even weigh, and both as
light as tales.

Lysander : I had no judgment when to her I swore.

Helena : Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er.

Lysander : Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you.

Demetrius : [Awaking] O Helena, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine! [p]To what, my
love, shall I compare thine eyne? [p]Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in
show [p]Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow! [p]That pure
congealed white, high Taurus snow, [p]Fann'd with the eastern wind,
turns to a crow [p]When thou hold'st up thy hand: O, let me
kiss [p]This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!

Helena : O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent [p]To set against me for your
merriment: [p]If you we re civil and knew courtesy, [p]You would not
do me thus much injury. [p]Can you not hate me, as I know you
do, [p]But you must join in souls to mock me too? [p]If you were men,
as men you are in show, [p]You would not use a gentle lady so; [p]To
vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts, [p]When I am sure you hate
me with your hearts. [p]You both are rivals, and love Hermia; [p]And
now both rivals, to mock Helena: [p]A trim exploit, a manly
enterprise, [p]To conjure tears up in a poor maid's eyes [p]With your
derision! none of noble sort [p]Would so offend a virgin, and
extort [p]A poor soul's patience, all to make you sport.

Lysander : You are unkind, Demetrius; be not so; [p]For you love Hermia; this you
know I know: [p]And here, with all good will, with all my heart, [p]In
Hermia's love I yield you up my part; [p]And yours of Helena to me
bequeath, [p]Whom I do love and will do till my death.

Helena : Never did mockers waste more idle breath.

Demetrius : Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none: [p]If e'er I loved her, all
that love is gone. [p]My heart to her but as guest-wise
sojourn'd, [p]And now to Helen is it home return'd, [p]There to
remain.

Lysander : Helen, it is not so.

Demetrius : Disparage not the faith thou dost not know, [p]Lest, to thy peril,
thou aby it dear. [p]Look, where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear.

Hermia : Dark night, that from the eye his function takes, [p]The ear more
quick of apprehension makes; [p]Wherein it doth impair the seeing
sense, [p]It pays the hearing double recompense. [p]Thou art not by
mine eye, Lysander, found; [p]Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy
sound [p]But why unkindly didst thou leave me so?

Lysander : Why should he stay, whom love doth press to go?

Hermia : What love could press Lysander from my side?

Lysander : Lysander's love, that would not let him bide, [p]Fair Helena, who more
engilds the night [p]Than all you fiery oes and eyes of light. [p]Why
seek'st thou me? could not this make thee know, [p]The hate I bear
thee made me leave thee so?

Hermia : You speak not as you think: it cannot be.

Helena : Lo, she is one of this confederacy! [p]Now I perceive they have
conjoin'd all three [p]To fashion this false sport, in spite of
me. [p]Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid! [p]Have you conspired,
have you with these contrived [p]To bait me with this foul
derision? [p]Is all the counsel that we two have shared, [p]The
sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent, [p]When we have chid the
hasty-footed time [p]For parting us,--O, is it all forgot? [p]All
school-days' friendship, childhood innocence? [p]We, Hermia, like two
artificial gods, [p]Have with our needles created both one
flower, [p]Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion, [p]Both
warbling of one song, both in one key, [p]As if our hands, our sides,
voices and minds, [p]Had been incorporate. So we grow
together, [p]Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, [p]But yet an
union in partition; [p]Two lovely berries moulded on one stem; [p]So,
with two seeming bodies, but one heart; [p]Two of the first, like
coats in heraldry, [p]Due but to one and crowned with one
crest. [p]And will you rent our ancient love asunder, [p]To join with
men in scorning your poor friend? [p]It is not friendly, 'tis not
maidenly: [p]Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it, [p]Though I
alone do feel the injury.

Hermia : I am amazed at your passionate words. [p]I scorn you not: it seems
that you scorn me.

Helena : Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn, [p]To follow me and praise my
eyes and face? [p]And made your other love, Demetrius, [p]Who even but
now did spurn me with his foot, [p]To call me goddess, nymph, divine
and rare, [p]Precious, celestial? Wherefore speaks he this [p]To her
he hates? and wherefore doth Lysander [p]Deny your love, so rich
within his soul, [p]And tender me, forsooth, affection, [p]But by your
setting on, by your consent? [p]What thought I be not so in grace as
you, [p]So hung upon with love, so fortunate, [p]But miserable most,
to love unloved? [p]This you should pity rather than despise.

Hermia : I understand not what you mean by this.

Helena : Ay, do, persever, counterfeit sad looks, [p]Make mouths upon me when I
turn my back; [p]Wink each at other; hold the sweet jest up: [p]This
sport, well carried, shall be chronicled. [p]If you have any pity,
grace, or manners, [p]You would not make me such an argument. [p]But
fare ye well: 'tis partly my own fault; [p]Which death or absence soon
shall remedy.

Lysander : Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse: [p]My love, my life my soul, fair
Helena!

Helena : O excellent!

Hermia : Sweet, do not scorn her so.

Demetrius : If she cannot entreat, I can compel.

Lysander : Thou canst compel no more than she entreat: [p]Thy threats have no
more strength than her weak prayers. [p]Helen, I love thee; by my
life, I do: [p]I swear by that which I will lose for thee, [p]To prove
him false that says I love thee not.

Demetrius : I say I love thee more than he can do.

Lysander : If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too.

Demetrius : Quick, come!

Hermia : Lysander, whereto tends all this?

Lysander : Away, you Ethiope!

Demetrius : No, no; he'll [p]Seem to break loose; take on as you would
follow, [p]But yet come not: you are a tame man, go!

Lysander : Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! vile thing, let loose, [p]Or I will
shake thee from me like a serpent!

Hermia : Why are you grown so rude? what change is this? [p]Sweet love,--

Lysander : Thy love! out, tawny Tartar, out! [p]Out, loathed medicine! hated
potion, hence!

Hermia : Do you not jest?

Helena : Yes, sooth; and so do you.

Lysander : Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee.

Demetrius : I would I had your bond, for I perceive [p]A weak bond holds you: I'll
not trust your word.

Lysander : What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead? [p]Although I hate
her, I'll not harm her so.

Hermia : What, can you do me greater harm than hate? [p]Hate me! wherefore? O
me! what news, my love! [p]Am not I Hermia? are not you Lysander? [p]I
am as fair now as I was erewhile. [p]Since night you loved me; yet
since night you left [p]me: [p]Why, then you left me--O, the gods
forbid!-- [p]In earnest, shall I say?

Lysander : Ay, by my life; [p]And never did desire to see thee more. [p]Therefore
be out of hope, of question, of doubt; [p]Be certain, nothing truer;
'tis no jest [p]That I do hate thee and love Helena.

Hermia : O me! you juggler! you canker-blossom! [p]You thief of love! what,
have you come by night [p]And stolen my love's heart from him?

Helena : Fine, i'faith! [p]Have you no modesty, no maiden shame, [p]No touch of
bashfulness? What, will you tear [p]Impatient answers from my gentle
tongue? [p]Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet, you!

Hermia : Puppet? why so? ay, that way goes the game. [p]Now I perceive that she
hath made compare [p]Between our statures; she hath urged her
height; [p]And with her personage, her tall personage, [p]Her height,
forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him. [p]And are you grown so high in
his esteem; [p]Because I am so dwarfish and so low? [p]How low am I,
thou painted maypole? speak; [p]How low am I? I am not yet so
low [p]But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.

Helena : I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen, [p]Let her not hurt me: I
was never curst; [p]I have no gift at all in shrewishness; [p]I am a
right maid for my cowardice: [p]Let her not strike me. You perhaps may
think, [p]Because she is something lower than myself, [p]That I can
match her.

Hermia : Lower! hark, again.

Helena : Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me. [p]I evermore did love you,
Hermia, [p]Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you; [p]Save
that, in love unto Demetrius, [p]I told him of your stealth unto this
wood. [p]He follow'd you; for love I follow'd him; [p]But he hath chid
me hence and threaten'd me [p]To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me
too: [p]And now, so you will let me quiet go, [p]To Athens will I bear
my folly back [p]And follow you no further: let me go: [p]You see how
simple and how fond I am.

Hermia : Why, get you gone: who is't that hinders you?

Helena : A foolish heart, that I leave here behind.

Hermia : What, with Lysander?

Helena : With Demetrius.

Lysander : Be not afraid; she shall not harm thee, Helena.

Demetrius : No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part.

Helena : O, when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd! [p]She was a vixen when
she went to school; [p]And though she be but little, she is fierce.

Hermia : 'Little' again! nothing but 'low' and 'little'! [p]Why will you suffer
her to flout me thus? [p]Let me come to her.

Lysander : Get you gone, you dwarf; [p]You minimus, of hindering knot-grass
made; [p]You bead, you acorn.

Demetrius : You are too officious [p]In her behalf that scorns your
services. [p]Let her alone: speak not of Helena; [p]Take not her part;
for, if thou dost intend [p]Never so little show of love to
her, [p]Thou shalt aby it.

Lysander : Now she holds me not; [p]Now follow, if thou darest, to try whose
right, [p]Of thine or mine, is most in Helena.

Demetrius : Follow! nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jole.

Hermia : You, mistress, all this coil is 'long of you: [p]Nay, go not back.

Helena : I will not trust you, I, [p]Nor longer stay in your curst
company. [p]Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray, [p]My legs
are longer though, to run away.

Hermia : I am amazed, and know not what to say.

Oberon : This is thy negligence: still thou mistakest, [p]Or else committ'st
thy knaveries wilfully.

Puck : Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook. [p]Did not you tell me I
should know the man [p]By the Athenian garment be had on? [p]And so
far blameless proves my enterprise, [p]That I have 'nointed an
Athenian's eyes; [p]And so far am I glad it so did sort [p]As this
their jangling I esteem a sport.

Oberon : Thou see'st these lovers seek a place to fight: [p]Hie therefore,
Robin, overcast the night; [p]The starry welkin cover thou
anon [p]With drooping fog as black as Acheron, [p]And lead these testy
rivals so astray [p]As one come not within another's way. [p]Like to
Lysander sometime frame thy tongue, [p]Then stir Demetrius up with
bitter wrong; [p]And sometime rail thou like Demetrius; [p]And from
each other look thou lead them thus, [p]Till o'er their brows
death-counterfeiting sleep [p]With leaden legs and batty wings doth
creep: [p]Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye; [p]Whose liquor
hath this virtuous property, [p]To take from thence all error with his
might, [p]And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight. [p]When they
next wake, all this derision [p]Shall seem a dream and fruitless
vision, [p]And back to Athens shall the lovers wend, [p]With league
whose date till death shall never end. [p]Whiles I in this affair do
thee employ, [p]I'll to my queen and beg her Indian boy; [p]And then I
will her charmed eye release [p]From monster's view, and all things
shall be peace.

Puck : My fairy lord, this must be done with haste, [p]For night's swift
dragons cut the clouds full fast, [p]And yonder shines Aurora's
harbinger; [p]At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and
there, [p]Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all, [p]That in
crossways and floods have burial, [p]Already to their wormy beds are
gone; [p]For fear lest day should look their shames upon, [p]They
willfully themselves exile from light [p]And must for aye consort with
black-brow'd night.

Oberon : But we are spirits of another sort: [p]I with the morning's love have
oft made sport, [p]And, like a forester, the groves may tread, [p]Even
till the eastern gate, all fiery-red, [p]Opening on Neptune with fair
blessed beams, [p]Turns into yellow gold his salt green
streams. [p]But, notwithstanding, haste; make no delay: [p]We may
effect this business yet ere day.

Puck : Up and down, up and down, [p]I will lead them up and down: [p]I am
fear'd in field and town: [p]Goblin, lead them up and down. [p]Here
comes one.

Lysander : Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou now.

Puck : Here, villain; drawn and ready. Where art thou?

Lysander : I will be with thee straight.

Puck : Follow me, then, [p]To plainer ground.

Demetrius : Lysander! speak again: [p]Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou
fled? [p]Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head?

Puck : Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars, [p]Telling the bushes
that thou look'st for wars, [p]And wilt not come? Come, recreant;
come, thou child; [p]I'll whip thee with a rod: he is defiled [p]That
draws a sword on thee.

Demetrius : Yea, art thou there?

Puck : Follow my voice: we'll try no manhood here.

Lysander : He goes before me and still dares me on: [p]When I come where he
calls, then he is gone. [p]The villain is much lighter-heel'd than
I: [p]I follow'd fast, but faster he did fly; [p]That fallen am I in
dark uneven way, [p]And here will rest me. [p][Lies down] [p]Come,
thou gentle day! [p]For if but once thou show me thy grey
light, [p]I'll find Demetrius and revenge this spite.

Puck : Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why comest thou not?

Demetrius : Abide me, if thou darest; for well I wot [p]Thou runn'st before me,
shifting every place, [p]And darest not stand, nor look me in the
face. [p]Where art thou now?

Puck : Come hither: I am here.

Demetrius : Nay, then, thou mock'st me. Thou shalt buy this dear, [p]If ever I thy
face by daylight see: [p]Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth
me [p]To measure out my length on this cold bed. [p]By day's approach
look to be visited.

Helena : O weary night, O long and tedious night, [p]Abate thy hour! Shine
comforts from the east, [p]That I may back to Athens by
daylight, [p]From these that my poor company detest: [p]And sleep,
that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye, [p]Steal me awhile from mine own
company.

Puck : Yet but three? Come one more; [p]Two of both kinds make up
four. [p]Here she comes, curst and sad: [p]Cupid is a knavish
lad, [p]Thus to make poor females mad.

Hermia : Never so weary, never so in woe, [p]Bedabbled with the dew and torn
with briers, [p]I can no further crawl, no further go; [p]My legs can
keep no pace with my desires. [p]Here will I rest me till the break of
day. [p]Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray!

Puck : On the ground [p]Sleep sound: [p]I'll apply [p]To your eye, [p]Gentle
lover, remedy. [p][Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER's eyes] [p]When
thou wakest, [p]Thou takest [p]True delight [p]In the sight [p]Of thy
former lady's eye: [p]And the country proverb known, [p]That every man
should take his own, [p]In your waking shall be shown: [p]Jack shall
have Jill; [p]Nought shall go ill; [p]The man shall have his mare
again, and all shall be well.

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Next: Act 4 - Scene 1

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