Faculty of English

HELENA         You both are rivals and love Hermia, And now both rivals to mock Helena. A trim exploit, a manly enterprise, To conjure tears up in a poor maid’s eyes With your derision! None of noble sort Would so offend a virgin, and extort A poor soul’s patience, all to make you sport.        (3.2.155-161) Helena spells it out, with particular emphasis […]

HELENA         O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent To set against me for your merriment. If you were civil and knew courtesy, You would not do me thus much injury. Can you not hate me, as I know you do, But you must join in souls to mock me too? If you were men, as men you are in show, You would […]

DEMETRIUS   (Wakes.) O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine, To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne? Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow! That pure congealed white, high Taurus’ snow, Fanned with the eastern wind, turns to a crow When thou hold’st up thy hand. O let me kiss This impress of pure white, this seal of bliss!         (3.2.127-144) Lysander and Helena […]

HELENA         You do advance your cunning more and more. When truth kills truth, O devilish holy fray! These vows are Hermia’s: will you give her o’er? Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh. Your vows to her and me, put in two scales, Will even weigh, and both as light as tales. LYSANDER     I had no judgement when to her […]

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 […]