HELENA         You both are rivals and love Hermia,

And now both rivals to mock Helena.

A trim exploit, a manly enterprise,

To conjure tears up in a poor maid’s eyes

With your derision! None of noble sort

Would so offend a virgin, and extort

A poor soul’s patience, all to make you sport.        (3.2.155-161)

Helena spells it out, with particular emphasis on the names—do you really think that all women are the same, is that it? You both are rivals and love Hermia—remember? that’s the state of things. But now, it seems, both rivals to mock Helena. (This is Homosociality 101; this is actually all about Lysander and Demetrius and their relationship; the apparently interchangeable women are just a conduit for their rivalry and status games. Some truth to that, even without the drugs.) More reproof, trying to shame them into behaving better: a trim exploit, a manly enterprise, to conjure tears up in a poor maid’s eyes with your derision! Does it make you feel the big men, making a girl—me—cry? (I’m not crying, I’m not crying.) Then the class angle again: none of noble sort would so offend a virgin, and extort a poor soul’s patience, all to make you sport. It’s just not gentleman-like conduct, to mock people—me—and tease them—me—beyond the point of all endurance, just for a laugh? Are you PROUD of yourselves?