A Midsummer Night’s Dream | Act III, Scene II - Page 3

DEMETRIUS:
I say I love thee more than he can do.
LYSANDER:
If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too.
DEMETRIUS:
Quick, come.(260)
HERMIA:
Lysander, whereto tends all this?
LYSANDER:
Away, you Ethiope!
DEMETRIUS:
No, no, he will
Seem to break loose—take on as you would follow,
But yet come not. You are a tame man; go!(265)
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!(270)
Out, loathed medicine! O 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(275)
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?(280)
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, shall I say?(285)
LYSANDER:
Ay, by my life!
And never did desire to see thee more.
Therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt;
Be certain, nothing truer; 'tis no jest
That I do hate thee and love Helena.(290)
HERMIA:
O me! you juggler! you cankerb lossom!
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,(295)
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(300)
Between our statures; she hath urged 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?(305)
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;(310)
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.(315)
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,(320)
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, to kill me too;
And now, so you will let me quiet go,(325)
To Athens will I bear my folly back,
And follow you no further. 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.(330)
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;(335)
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.(340)
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.(345)
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 darest, to try whose right,
Of thine or mine, is most in Helena.
DEMETRIUS:
Follow! Nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jowl.

Exeunt Lysander and Demetrius

HERMIA:
You, mistress, all this coil is 'long of you.
Nay, go not back.(355)
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 amazed, and know not what to say.(360)

Exit

OBERON:
This is thy negligence. Still thou mistakest,
Or else committ'st thy knaveries wilfully.
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?(365)
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.(370)
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.(375)
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(380)
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.(385)
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,(390)
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.
  • “step outside” (a challenge)
  • Ethiopian
  • pretend
  • Let go
  • truly
  • before
  • trickster
  • worm that eats flower buds
  • Hermia interprets the use of “puppet” as an attack on her height.
  • wearing excessive makeup
  • tall, thin person
  • argumentative
  • being ill-tempered
  • proper
  • somewhat
  • sneaking
  • if
  • foolish
  • an ill-tempered woman
  • to scorn
  • [Latin] of the smallest size
  • This creeping weed's sap was believed to stunt a person's growth.
  • weeds
  • meddlesome
  • pay for
  • turmoil
  • because
  • fight
  • bickering
  • Hurry
  • sky
  • a river in Hades; specifically, the river of woe.
  • bat-like
  • potent
  • normal
  • go
  • covenant; promise
  • duration
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