THESEUS Either to die the death, or to abjure
For ever the society of men.
Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires,
Know of your youth, examine well your blood
Whether, if you yield not to your father’s choice,
You can endure the livery of a nun,
For aye to be in shady cloister mewed
To live a barren sister all your life,
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon. (1.1.65-73)
Theseus is categorical, and sly in how he frames his response. Either to die the death, yes, just as your father has already mentioned, or else PERPETUAL VIRGINITY. To abjure for ever the society of men. No more boys for you ever again! And his description of the life of a nun—which is fairly Catholic, in this notionally pagan setting—is both vivid and explicitly sensual, even erotic, as it imagines sight, sound, touch, even taste; again, Hippolyta, rather than Hermia, is perhaps the intended audience. Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires: think about what you really, really want, in all senses; know of your youth, examine well your blood—you’re young, of course you have Feelings, you’re passionate, you have Needs, think about how you feel, in your body, right now—and consider carefully, if you yield not to your father’s choice, if you don’t do what you’re being told to do, which is to marry Demetrius, whether you can endure the livery of a nun (and livery here is identity, way of life, not just the habit, but the habit is conjured as an effacement of identity, just one of many, in service) for aye to be in shady cloister mewed, shut up—walled up—for all time in a dark, shadowy building, cold, cold stone, to live a barren sister all your life, no husband, no children, just chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon. Weak and washed out, chanting in unison rather than singing in harmony, and (again) childless, sterile, remote—because the moon is so, so far away, and so chilly, so utterly indifferent. (If Hippolyta is imagined as an amazon, then this negative, dismissive account of an all-female community is perhaps another dig at her.)
