HERMIA         Out, dog, out, cur! Thou driv’st me past the bounds

Of maiden’s patience. Hast thou slain him then?

Henceforth be never numbered among men.

O, once tell true: tell true, even for my sake,

Durst thou have looked upon him, being awake,

And hast thou killed him sleeping? O brave touch!

Could not a worm, an adder do so much?

An adder did it; for with doubler tongue

Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.        (3.2.65-73)

Hermia’s had enough, she’s tried begging, reproaching and cajoling, and now she’s just furious, and also very frightened. Out, dog, out, cur! You absolute BASTARD, thou driv’st me past the bounds of maiden’s patience. I don’t care if it’s immodest, unseemly, yelling at you like this, I just want to know what’s going on, and where Lysander is. Hast thou slain him then? Because if you have, henceforth be never numbered among men, you BEAST. Then she seems to relent for a moment—what if he might respond to her being nice? begging for help, for mercy, or appealing to his better nature? O, once tell true: tell true, even for my sake—please, just tell me the truth, just this once—and then, more steel: durst thou have looked upon him, being awake, and hast thou killed him sleeping? You wouldn’t have dared take him on properly, man to man, challenge him—did you actually kill him when he was asleep? O brave touch! Big man, REALLY courageous, my hero. Could not a worm, an adder do so much? You killed him like a snake? (The snake that she dreamed was attacking her as she slept, as she awoke.) An adder did it, oh yes, you absolute snake in the grass, for with doubler tongue than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung. You lie and lie, you hypocrite, your tongue is more forked than any snake!

It’s striking that Hermia has imagined Demetrius shape-shifting from man to dog to snake, reflecting the kind of metamorphic hybridity which is, of course, going on in the Titania-Bottom plot…