HERMIA What, can you do me greater harm than hate?
Hate me, wherefore? O me, what news, my love?
Am not I Hermia? Are not you Lysander?
I am as fair now as I was erewhile.
Since night you loved me, yet since night you left me.
Why then, you left me (O the gods forbid)
In earnest, shall I say?
LYSANDER Ay, by my life,
And never did desire to see thee more.
Therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt;
Be certain, nothing truer: ’tis no jest
That I do hate thee, and love Helena. (3.2.271-281)
What, can you do me greater harm than hate? Hermia’s devastated, furious, baffled. Are you saying that you could do something worse than hate me? because even physical violence wouldn’t be as bad as hearing that: hate me, wherefore?WHY? What’s going ON? O me, what news, my love? I don’t UNDERSTAND! Am I not Hermia? Are not you Lysander? We’re still the same people who, you know, eloped a couple of hours ago; what’s changed? You and me, we love each other, that’s what we DO! Since night you loved me—yes, that’s why we’re here, in the forest, running away together; you loved me last night, and when we went to sleep together—not too close, mind—in the dark, yet since night you left me. You’ve abandoned me, rejected me, in that same single night! Why then, you left me (O the gods forbid) in earnest, shall I say? It’s a terrible dawning realisation: Lysander left her because he wanted to, he chose to, apparently of his own free will. You mean all this is SERIOUS? Oh yes, ay, by my life, avers Lysander, dead serious alright, and never did desire to see thee more. When I walked out on you, that was that, final, us, over. And he turns the knife again and again: therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt; be certain, nothing truer. I am stating this categorically, more or less in words of one syllable, and you can have no room to disbelieve what I say; even more, stop thinking that we are ever going to get back together. NO chance. ’Tis no jest that I do hate thee, and love Helena. This isn’t a game; I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life.
And the situation’s ridiculous and Lysander (and Demetrius) are stoned out of their tiny minds, but the way in which Lysander is speaking to Hermia is just awful, every word wounding, hitting home.
