HERMIA         Puppet? Why so? Aye, that way goes the game. Now I perceive that she hath made compare Between our statures: she hath urged her height, And with her personage, her tall personage, Her height, forsooth, she hath prevailed with him. And are you grown so high in his esteem Because I am so dwarfish and so low? How […]

HERMIA [to Helena]  O me, you juggler, you canker-blossom, You thief of love! What, have you come by night And stolen my love’s heart from him? HELENA                                 Fine, i’ faith. Have you no modesty, no maiden shame, No touch of bashfulness? What, will you tear Impatient answers from my gentle tongue? Fie, fie, you counterfeit, you puppet, you!   (3.2.282-288) Hermia explodes, […]

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, […]

HERMIA         Do you not jest? HELENA                     Yes, sooth, and so do you. LYSANDER     Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee. DEMETRIUS   I would I had your bond; for I perceive A weak bond holds you. I’ll not trust your word. LYSANDER     What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead? Although I hate her, I’ll […]

DEMETRIUS [to Helena]       I say, I love thee more than he can do. LYSANDER [to Demetrius]    If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too. DEMETRIUS   Quick, come. HERMIA                                 Lysander, whereto tends all this? LYSANDER     Away, you Ethiop. DEMETRIUS [to Hermia]                  No, no: he’ll seem To break loose, take on as you would follow, But yet come not. [to Lysander] You are a tame man, go. LYSANDER     Hang off, thou cat, thou burr, vile […]

LYSANDER     Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse, My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena. HELENA         O excellent! HERMIA         [to Lysander]  Sweet, do not scorn her so. DEMETRIUS   [to Lysander]  If she cannot entreat, I can compel. LYSANDER     Thou canst compel no more than she entreat. Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers. Helen, I love thee, […]

HERMIA         I understand not what you mean by this. HELENA         I do. Persevere, counterfeit sad looks, Make mouths upon me when I turn my back, Wink each at other, hold the sweet jest up. This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled. If you have any pity, grace or manners, You would not make me such an argument. But fare ye well. ’Tis partly my own fault, Which death or […]

HELENA         Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn, To follow me and praise my eyes and face? And made your other love Demetrius, Who even but now did spurn me with his foot, To call me goddess, nymph, divine and rare, Precious, celestial? Wherefore speaks he this To her he hates? And wherefore doth Lysander Deny […]

HELENA         And will you rent our ancient love asunder To join with men in scorning your poor friend? It is not friendly, ’tis not maidenly. Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it, Though I alone do feel the injury. HERMIA         I am amazed at your passionate words. I scorn you not; it seems that you scorn me.          […]

HELENA         We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, Have with our needles created both one flower, Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion, Both warbling of one song, both in one key, As if our hands, our sides, voices and minds Had been incorporate. So we grew together Like to a double cherry, seeming parted But yet an union in partition, Two lovely berries moulded on one stem; […]