DEMETRIUS   My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,

Of this their purpose hither to this wood,

And I in fury hither followed them,

Fair Helena in fancy following me.

But my good lord, I wot not by what power

(But by some power it is) my love to Hermia,

Melted as the snow, seems to me now

As the remembrance of an idle gaud,

Which in my childhood I did dote upon;

And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,

The object and the pleasure of mine eye,

Is only Helena. To her, my lord,

Was I betrothed ere I see Hermia;

But like in sickness did I loathe this food.

But as in health, come to my natural taste,

Now I do wish it, love it, long for it,

And will for evermore be true to it. (4.1.159-175)

Demetrius’s speech in reply to Egeus—although he’s probably addressing Theseus—is pretty much impossible to break; it all just comes tumbling out. The beginning is straightforward narrative: my lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth, of this their purpose hither to this wood, and I in fury hither followed them, fair Helena in fancy following me. That’s how we all ended up here, yes. Fury and fancy both suggest madness; no one was quite in their right mind even at the beginning of this strange chain of events. Then it all gets a bit hazy… But my good lord, I wot not by what power (but by some power it is)—you SAID it, you have NO idea—my love to Hermia, melted as the snow, seems to me now as the remembrance of an idle gaud, which in my childhood I did dote upon. I remember that I loved Hermia, yes, but it’s all just dissolved (the exact terms in which Helena lamented the waning of Demetrius’s original passion for her)—loving Hermia feels like something that used to be important a very very long time ago, but now I can’t remember why; it’s all become trivial? And—now—all the faith, the virtue of my heart, the object and the pleasure of mine eye, is only Helena. It’s HELENA for me! Bit embarrassing to rake all this up again, but, as you know, to her, my lord, was I betrothed ere I see Hermia. We were engaged, yes. Yes. And then, I don’t know, I just messed up, it was a stupid thing, like I wasn’t myself: but like in sickness did I loathe this food. I didn’t know what was good for me, I didn’t know how lucky I was, and so I had this—thing—for Hermia. But as in health, come to my natural taste, now I do wish it, love it, long for it, and will for evermore be true to it. Yes, it’s Helena for me, now and forever. (The irony of course is that Demetrius is still Under The Influence. But the terms in which he expresses his love for Helena make his infatuation with Hermia the moment of madness, an interruption to the natural order of things; being reunited with Helena is a kind of healing and recovery.)