OBERON         Stand aside. The noise they make Will cause Demetrius to awake. PUCK  Then will two at once woo one: That must needs be sport alone. And those things do best please me That befall preposterously. Enter LYSANDER and HELENA. LYSANDER     Why should you think that I should woo in scorn? Scorn and derision never come in tears. Look when I vow, I weep; and vows […]

OBERON         [Squeezes the flower on DEMETRIUS’s eyelids.] Flower of this purple dye, Hit with Cupid’s archery, Sink in apple of his eye. When his love he doth espy, Let her shine as gloriously As the Venus of the sky. When thou wak’st, if she be by, Beg of her for remedy. Enter [PUCK]. PUCK  Captain of our fairy band, Helena is […]

PUCK  Then fate o’errules, that one man holding troth, A million fail, confounding oath on oath. OBERON         About the wood go swifter than the wind, And Helena of Athens look thou find. All fancy-sick she is and pale of cheer, With sighs of love that costs the fresh blood dear. By some illusion see thou bring her here. I’ll charm his eyes, against she do appear. PUCK  I go, I go, look how I […]

DEMETRIUS   There is no following her in this fierce vein; Here, therefore, for a while I will remain. So sorrow’s heaviness doth heavier grow For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe, Which now in some slight measure it will pay, If for his tender here I make some stay. (Lie[s] down [and sleeps].) [ OBERON and PUCK come forward.] OBERON         What hast thou done? Thou hast mistaken […]

DEMETRIUS   You spend your passion on a misprised mood. I am not guilty of Lysander’s blood, Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell. HERMIA         I pray thee, tell me then that he is well. DEMETRIUS   And if I could, what should I get therefor? HERMIA         A privilege never to see me more. And from thy hated presence part I so. See […]

HERMIA         Out, dog, out, cur! Thou driv’st me past the bounds Of maiden’s patience. Hast thou slain him then? Henceforth be never numbered among men. O, once tell true: tell true, even for my sake, Durst thou have looked upon him, being awake, And hast thou killed him sleeping? O brave touch! Could not a worm, an adder do so much? An […]

DEMETRIUS   So should the murdered look, and so should I, Pierced through the heart with your stern cruelty. Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere. HERMIA         What’s this to my Lysander? Where is he? Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me? DEMETRIUS   I had rather give his carcass to my hounds.            (3.2.58-64) Oh, I look grim […]

HERMIA         The sun was not so true unto the day As he to me. Would he have stolen away From sleeping Hermia? I’ll believe as soon This whole earth may be bored, and that the moon May through the centre creep, and so displease Her brother’s noontide with th’antipodes. It cannot be but thou hast murdered him. So should a murderer look: so dead, so grim.         (3.2.50-57) […]

DEMETRIUS   O, why rebuke you him that loves you so? Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe. HERMIA         Now I but chide; but I should use thee worse, For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse. If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep, Being o’er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep And kill me too.         (3.2.43-9) Demetrius is […]

OBERON         This falls out better than I could devise. But hast thou yet latched the Athenian’s eyes With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do? PUCK  I took him sleeping (that is finished too) And the Athenian woman by his side, That when he waked, of force she must be eyed. Enter DEMETRIUS and HERMIA. OBERON         Stand close. This is the same […]