HELENA The wildest hath not such a heart as you.
Run when you will, the story shall be changed:
Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;
The dove pursues the griffon; the mild hind
Makes speed to catch the tiger: bootless speed,
When cowardice pursues, and valour flies.
DEMETRIUS I will not stay thy questions. Let me go;
Or if thou follow me, do not believe
But I shall do thee mischief in the wood. [Exit.] (2.1.229-237)
I’m not afraid of any wild animals, retorts Helena, stoutly, because the wildest hath not such a heart as you; you’re crueller than any beast! Go on then, leave me, run! run where you will, the story shall be changed. I’m changing the narrative, everything’s going to be different from now on! I’m the one in control now, am I? (Is this defiance, still on that masochistic high, or desperation?) All the old tales are being turned upside down, because I say so? Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase, the pursued becoming the pursuer (and perhaps with the same intentions of sexual assault? Or is Helena not thinking this through, quite—after all, she hasn’t thought anything else through…) The dove, so meek and innocent, pursues the griffon, never minding its cruel claws, and the mild hind, dainty lady deer, makes speed to catch the tiger, that byword for savagery. (Daphne was transformed into a tree in Ovid’s Metamorphoses; the griffon is a hybrid beast, half lion and half eagle. The examples anticipate the later action, if one peeks ahead.) Bootless speed, when cowardice pursues, and valour flies. It doesn’t matter how fast you run, when the coward—perhaps the one with nothing left to lose?—runs after the courageous. (Helena, love, you’re really not making sense. Or else she’s being very sarcastic: run away why don’t you, then, big bad man?) I will not stay thy questions: I don’t have to stand around listening to this, replies Demetrius. Let me go (she may well be hanging on to him physically by now). But he’s still giving a final warning: or if thou follow me, do not believe but I shall do thee mischief in the wood. If you keep following me, well, I won’t be answerable for my actions. It’s a threat, and perhaps a sexual one. And so Demetrius storms off, leaving Helena and the invisible Oberon.
