William Shakespeare's
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act III, scene 2.
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SCENE II. Another part of the wood.
[Enter OBERON.]
- OBERON
- I wonder if Titania be awak'd;
- Then, what it was that next came in her eye,
- Which she must dote on in extremity.
[Enter PUCK.]
- Here comes my messenger.--How now, mad spirit?
- What night-rule now about this haunted grove?
- PUCK
- My mistress with a monster is in love.
- Near to her close and consecrated bower,
- While she was in her dull and sleeping hour,
- A crew of patches, rude mechanicals,
- That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,
- Were met together to rehearse a play
- Intended for great Theseus' nuptial day.
- The shallowest thickskin of that barren sort
- Who Pyramus presented in their sport,
- Forsook his scene and enter'd in a brake;
- When I did him at this advantage take,
- An ass's nowl I fixed on his head;
- Anon, his Thisbe must be answered,
- And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy,
- As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,
- Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort,
- Rising and cawing at the gun's report,
- Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky,
- So at his sight away his fellows fly:
- And at our stamp here, o'er and o'er one falls;
- He murder cries, and help from Athens calls.
- Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears, thus strong,
- Made senseless things begin to do them wrong;
- For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch;
- Some sleeves, some hats: from yielders all things catch.
- I led them on in this distracted fear,
- And left sweet Pyramus translated there:
- When in that moment,--so it came to pass,--
- Titania wak'd, and straightway lov'd an ass.
- OBERON
- This falls out better than I could devise.
- But hast thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes
- With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do?
- PUCK
- I took him sleeping,--that is finish'd too,--
- And the Athenian woman by his side;
- That, when he wak'd, of force she must be ey'd.
[Enter DEMETRIUS and HERMIA.]
- OBERON
- Stand close; this is the same Athenian.
- PUCK
- This is the woman, but not this the man.
- 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.
- The sun was not so true unto the day
- As he to me: would he have stol'n away
- From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon
- This whole earth may be bor'd; and that the moon
- May through the centre creep and so displease
- Her brother's noontide with the antipodes.
- It cannot be but thou hast murder'd him;
- So should a murderer look; so dead, so grim.
- DEMETRIUS
- So should the murder'd look; and so should I,
- Pierc'd 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.
- HERMIA
- Out, dog! out, cur! thou driv'st me past the bounds
- Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him, then?
- Henceforth be never number'd among men!
- Oh! once tell true; tell true, even for my sake;
- Durst thou have look'd upon him, being awake,
- And hast thou kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch!
- Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?
- An adder did it; for with doubler tongue
- Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.
- DEMETRIUS
- You spend your passion on a mispris'd 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
- An if I could, what should I get therefore?
- HERMIA
- A privilege never to see me more.--
- And from thy hated presence part I so:
- See me no more whether he be dead or no.
[Exit.]
- 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.
[Lies down.]
- OBERON
- What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken quite,
- And laid the love-juice on some true-love's sight:
- Of thy misprision must perforce ensue
- Some true love turn'd, and not a false turn'd true.
- PUCK
- Then fate o'er-rules, 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 go,--
- Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow.
[Exit.]
- OBERON
- 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.
[Re-enter PUCK.]
- PUCK
- Captain of our fairy band,
- Helena is here at hand,
- And the youth mistook by me
- Pleading for a lover's fee;
- Shall we their fond pageant see?
- Lord what fools these mortals be!
- 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 so born,
- In their nativity all truth appears.
- How can these things in me seem scorn to you,
- Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true?
- 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 judgment when to her I swore.
- HELENA
- Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er.
- LYSANDER
- Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you.
- DEMETRIUS
- [Awaking.]
- 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,
- Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow
- When thou hold'st up thy hand: O, let me kiss
- This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!
- 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 not use a gentle lady so;
- To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts,
- When I am sure you hate me with your hearts.
- 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.
- LYSANDER
- You are unkind, Demetrius; be not so;
- For you love Hermia: this you know I know:
- And here, with all good will, with all my heart,
- In Hermia's love I yield you up my part;
- And yours of Helena to me bequeath,
- Whom I do love and will do till my death.
- HELENA
- Never did mockers waste more idle breath].
- DEMETRIUS
- Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none:
- If e'er I lov'd her, all that love is gone.
- My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourn'd;
- And now to Helen is it home return'd,
- There to remain.
- LYSANDER
- Helen, it is not so.
- DEMETRIUS
- Disparage not the faith thou dost not know,
- Lest, to thy peril, thou aby it dear.--
- Look where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear.
[Enter HERMIA.]
- HERMIA
- Dark night, that from the eye his function takes,
- The ear more quick of apprehension makes;
- Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense,
- It pays the hearing double recompense:--
- Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found;
- Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound.
- But why unkindly didst thou leave me so?
- LYSANDER
- Why should he stay whom love doth press to go?
- HERMIA
- What love could press Lysander from my side?
- LYSANDER
- Lysander's love, that would not let him bide,--
- Fair Helena,--who more engilds the night
- Than all yon fiery oes and eyes of light.
- Why seek'st thou me? could not this make thee know
- The hate I bare thee made me leave thee so?
- HERMIA
- You speak not as you think; it cannot be.
- HELENA
- Lo, she is one of this confederacy!
- Now I perceive they have conjoin'd all three
- To fashion this false sport in spite of me.
- Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid!
- Have you conspir'd, have you with these contriv'd,
- To bait me with this foul derision?
- Is all the counsel that we two have shar'd,
- The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent,
- When we have chid the hasty-footed time
- For parting us,--O, is all forgot?
- All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence?
- 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 a union in partition,
- Two lovely berries moulded on one stem:
- So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart;
- Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,
- Due but to one, and crowned with one crest.
- 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
- 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 your love, so rich within his soul,
- And tender me, forsooth, affection,
- But by your setting on, by your consent?
- What though I be not so in grace as you,
- So hung upon with love, so fortunate;
- But miserable most, to love unlov'd?
- This you should pity rather than despise.
- HERMIA
- I understand not what you mean by this.
- HELENA
- Ay, do persever, counterfeit sad looks,
- Make mows 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 absence, soon shall remedy.
- LYSANDER
- Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse;
- My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena!
- HELENA
- O excellent!
- HERMIA
- Sweet, do not scorn her so.
- DEMETRIUS
- 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; by my life I do;
- I swear by that which I will lose for thee
- To prove him false that says I love thee not.
- DEMETRIUS
- I say I love thee more than he can do.
- LYSANDER
- If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too.
- DEMETRIUS
- Quick, come,--
- HERMIA
- Lysander, whereto tends all this?
- LYSANDER
- Away, you Ethiope!
- DEMETRIUS
- No, no, sir:--he will
- Seem to break loose; take on as you would follow:
- But yet come not. You are a tame man; go!
- LYSANDER
- Hang off, thou cat, thou burr: vile thing, let loose,
- Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent.
- HERMIA
- Why are you grown so rude? what change is this,
- Sweet love?
- LYSANDER
- Thy love! out, tawny Tartar, out!
- Out, loathed medicine! hated potion, hence!
- 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 not harm her so.
- 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 lov'd me; yet since night you left me:
- Why then, you left me,--O, the gods forbid!--
- In earnest, shall I say?
- LYSANDER
- Ay, by my life;
- And never did desire to see thee more.
- Therefore be out of hope, of question, doubt,
- Be certain, nothing truer; 'tis no jest
- That I do hate thee and love Helena.
- HERMIA
- O me! you juggler! you cankerblossom!
- You thief of love! What! have you come by night,
- And stol'n 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!
- HERMIA
- Puppet! why so? Ay, that way goes the game.
- Now I perceive that she hath made compare
- Between our statures; she hath urg'd her height;
- And with her personage, her tall personage,
- Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him.--
- And are you grown so high in his esteem
- Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
- How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak;
- How low am I? I am not yet so low
- But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.
- 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.
- HELENA
- Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me.
- I evermore did love you, Hermia;
- Did ever keep your counsels; never wrong'd you;
- Save that, in love unto Demetrius,
- I told him of your stealth unto this wood:
- He follow'd you; for love I follow'd him;
- But he hath chid me hence, and threaten'd me
- To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too:
- And now, so you will let me quiet go,
- To Athens will I bear my folly back,
- And follow you no farther. Let me go:
- You see how simple and how fond I am.
- 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's angry, she is keen and shrewd:
- She was a vixen when she went to school;
- And, though she be but little, she is fierce.
- HERMIA
- Little again! nothing but low and little!--
- Why will you suffer her to flout me thus?
- Let me come to her.
- LYSANDER
- Get you gone, you dwarf;
- You minimus, of hind'ring knot-grass made;
- You bead, you acorn.
- DEMETRIUS
- You are too officious
- In her behalf that scorns your services.
- Let her alone: speak not of Helena;
- Take not her part; for if thou dost intend
- Never so little show of love to her,
- Thou shalt aby it.
- LYSANDER
- Now she holds me not;
- Now follow, if thou dar'st, to try whose right,
- Of thine or mine, is most in Helena.
- DEMETRIUS
- Follow! nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jole.
[Exeunt LYSANDER and DEMETRIUS.]
- HERMIA
- You, mistress, all this coil is 'long of you:
- Nay, go not back.
- HELENA
- I will not trust you, I;
- Nor longer stay in your curst company.
- Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray;
- My legs are longer though, to run away.
[Exit.]
- HERMIA
- I am amaz'd, and know not what to say.
[Exit, pursuing HELENA.]
- OBERON
- This is thy negligence: still thou mistak'st,
- Or else commit'st thy knaveries willfully.
- PUCK
- Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.
- Did not you tell me I should know the man
- By the Athenian garments he had on?
- And so far blameless proves my enterprise
- That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes:
- And so far am I glad it so did sort,
- As this their jangling I esteem a sport.
- OBERON
- Thou seest these lovers seek a place to fight;
- Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night;
- The starry welkin cover thou anon
- With drooping fog, as black as Acheron,
- And lead these testy rivals so astray
- As one come not within another's way.
- Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue,
- Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong;
- And sometime rail thou like Demetrius;
- And from each other look thou lead them thus,
- Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep
- With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep:
- Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye;
- Whose liquor hath this virtuous property,
- To take from thence all error with his might
- And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.
- When they next wake, all this derision
- Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision;
- And back to Athens shall the lovers wend
- With league whose date till death shall never end.
- Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,
- I'll to my queen, and beg her Indian boy;
- And then I will her charmed eye release
- From monster's view, and all things shall be peace.
- PUCK
- My fairy lord, this must be done with haste,
- For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast;
- And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger,
- At whose approach ghosts, wandering here and there,
- Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all,
- That in cross-ways and floods have burial,
- Already to their wormy beds are gone;
- For fear lest day should look their shames upon
- They wilfully exile themselves from light,
- And must for aye consort with black-brow'd night.
- OBERON
- But we are spirits of another sort:
- I with the morning's love have oft made sport;
- And, like a forester, the groves may tread
- Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red,
- Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,
- Turns into yellow gold his salt-green streams.
- But, notwithstanding, haste; make no delay:
- We may effect this business yet ere day.
[Exit OBERON.]
- PUCK
- Up and down, up and down;
- I will lead them up and down:
- I am fear'd in field and town.
- Goblin, lead them up and down.
- Here comes one.
[Enter LYSANDER.]
- LYSANDER
- Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou now.
- PUCK
- Here, villain; drawn and ready. Where art thou?
- LYSANDER
- I will be with thee straight.
- PUCK
- Follow me, then,
- To plainer ground.
[Exit LYSANDER as following the voice.]
[Enter DEMETRIUS.]
- DEMETRIUS
- Lysander! speak again.
- Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?
- Speak. In some bush? where dost thou hide thy head?
- PUCK
- Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars,
- Telling the bushes that thou look'st for wars,
- And wilt not come? Come, recreant; come, thou child;
- I'll whip thee with a rod: he is defiled
- That draws a sword on thee.
- DEMETRIUS
- Yea, art thou there?
- PUCK
- Follow my voice; we'll try no manhood here.
[Exeunt.]
[Re-enter LYSANDER.]
- LYSANDER
- He goes before me, and still dares me on;
- When I come where he calls, then he is gone.
- The villain is much lighter heeled than I:
- I follow'd fast, but faster he did fly;
- That fallen am I in dark uneven way,
- And here will rest me. Come, thou gentle day!
- [Lies down.]
- For if but once thou show me thy grey light,
- I'll find Demetrius, and revenge this spite.
[Sleeps.]
[Re-enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS.]
- PUCK
- Ho, ho, ho, ho! Coward, why com'st thou not?
- DEMETRIUS
- Abide me, if thou dar'st; for well I wot
- Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place;
- And dar'st not stand, nor look me in the face.
- Where art thou?
- PUCK
- Come hither; I am here.
- DEMETRIUS
- Nay, then, thou mock'st me.
- Thou shalt buy this dear,
- If ever I thy face by daylight see:
- Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me
- To measure out my length on this cold bed.--
- By day's approach look to be visited.
[Lies down and sleeps.]
[Enter HELENA.]
- HELENA
- O weary night, O long and tedious night,
- Abate thy hours! Shine comforts from the east,
- That I may back to Athens by daylight,
- From these that my poor company detest:--
- And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye,
- Steal me awhile from mine own company.
[Sleeps.]
- PUCK
- Yet but three? Come one more;
- Two of both kinds makes up four.
- Here she comes, curst and sad:--
- Cupid is a knavish lad,
- Thus to make poor females mad.
[Enter HERMIA.]
- HERMIA
- Never so weary, never so in woe,
- Bedabbled with the dew, and torn with briers;
- I can no further crawl, no further go;
- My legs can keep no pace with my desires.
- Here will I rest me till the break of day.
- Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray!
[Lies down.]
- PUCK
- On the ground
- Sleep sound:
- I'll apply
- To your eye,
- Gentle lover, remedy.
[Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER'S eye.]
- When thou wak'st,
- Thou tak'st
- True delight
- In the sight
- Of thy former lady's eye:
- And the country proverb known,
- That every man should take his own,
- In your waking shall be shown:
- Jack shall have Jill;
- Nought shall go ill;
- The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.
[Exit PUCK.--DEMETRIUS, HELENA &c, sleep.]
William Shakespeare's
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act III, scene 2.
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