Faculty of English

HERMIA         Why, get you gone. Who is’t that hinders you? HELENA         A foolish heart, that I leave here behind. HERMIA         What, with Lysander? HELENA                                 With Demetrius. LYSANDER     Be not afraid. She shall not harm thee, Helena. DEMETRIUS   No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part. HELENA         O, when she is angry, she is keen and shrewd. She was […]

HELENA         Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me. I evermore did love you, Hermia, Did ever keep your counsels, never wronged you, Save that in love unto Demetrius, I told him of your stealth unto this wood. He followed you; for love, I followed him. But he hath chid me hence, and threatened me To strike me, spurn me, nay […]

HELENA         I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen, Let her not hurt me. I was never curst; I have no gift at all in shrewishness. I am a right maid for my cowardice: Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think Because she is something lower than myself, That I can match her. HERMIA                     Lower? Hark again.   (3.2.299-305) Helena’s […]

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 […]