PUCK  Churl, upon thy eyes I throw

All the power this charm doth owe.

[Squeezes the flower on Lysander’s eyelids.]

When thou wak’st, let love forbid

Sleep his seat on thy eyelid.

So awake, when I am gone;

For I must now to Oberon. (Exit.)

Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA running.

HELENA         Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.

DEMETRIUS   I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus.

HELENA         O, wilt thou darkling leave me? Do not so.

DEMETRIUS   Stay, on thy peril. I alone will go. (Exit.)      (2.2.82-91)

And so Puck does it, squeezes the juice of the magic flower on the eyes of the sleeping Lysander: churl—definitely pejorative, you’re not just nasty, you’re not a gentleman!—upon thy eyes I throw all the power this charm doth owe. Everything possible that this little flower can achieve, you’ve got coming to you, and the force of these words too: when thou wak’st, let love forbid sleep his seat on thy eyelid. Oh, you’re not going to sleep easy for much longer, sunshine, because sleepless nights are coming your way, and all because of LOVE! (Insomnia is one of love’s classic symptoms.) So awake, when I am gone; for I must now to Oberon, report in, get back in his good books. Job done, just let me get out of here, then you can wake up and everything will be different…

Of course they enter running, Helena and Demetrius, even more impassioned than they were a few moments before, and this is the moment of crisis: stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius! I don’t CARE anymore, just don’t leave me, do whatever you want, pleads Helena. I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus, is all Demetrius can reply: all I’ve got to say to you is PISS OFF and LEAVE ME ALONE. Stop hanging around like a wet weekend! Something at least is getting through to Helena, that he’s really going this time, that she can’t follow him any further: O, wilt thou darkling leave me? Darkling is wonderful, not only in the dark—because it’s nighttime—but without your light, the only light I care about, the light of love. Are you really going to leave me all alone in the dark? Do not so! Please! Stay, on thy peril. It’s Demetrius’s final threat, and it seems to have the desired effect; you don’t want to know what I’ll do if you keep following me, I’ve had enough, I won’t be answerable for my actions, he says. I alone will go. I’m OUT of here. And so he is.