The arden shakespeare co.., p.395
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works, page 395
LYSANDER
Thou canst compel no more than she entreat;
Thy threats have no more strength than her weak
prayers.
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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.
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DEMETRIUS Quick, come!
HERMIA Lysander, whereto tends all this?
LYSANDER Away, you Ethiope!
DEMETRIUS No, no; he’ll
Seem to break loose –
[to Lysander] 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,
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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! O hated potion, hence!
HERMIA Do you not jest?
HELENA Yes sooth, and so do you.
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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.
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HERMIA What, can you do me greater harm than hate?
Hate me? Wherefor? 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.
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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, of doubt;
Be certain, nothing truer; ’tis no jest
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That I do hate thee, and love Helena.
HERMIA O me!
[to Helena] You juggler! You canker-blossom!
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,
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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
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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?
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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;
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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!
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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.
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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,
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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.
HERMIA What! with Lysander?
HELENA With Demetrius.
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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 a vixen when she went to school,
And though she be but little, she is fierce.
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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 hindering knot-grass made;
You bead, you acorn.
DEMETRIUS You are too officious
330
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:
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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 jowl.
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,
340
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.
[Oberon and Puck come forward.]
OBERON This is thy negligence: still thou mistak’st,
345
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?
And so far blameless proves my enterprise
350
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;
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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,
360
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.
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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
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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;
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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,
380
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:
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They wilfully themselves exil’d 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
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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 defil’d
410
That draws a sword on thee.
DEMETRIUS Yea, art thou there?
PUCK Follow my voice; we’ll try no manhood here.
Exeunt.
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-heel’d than I:
415
I follow’d fast; but faster he did fly,
That fallen am I in dark uneven way,
And here will rest me. [Lies down.]
Come thou gentle day:
For if but once thou show me thy grey light,
I’ll find Demetrius, and revenge this spite. [Sleeps.]
420
Enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS.
PUCK Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why com’st thou not?
[They dodge about the stage.]
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 now?
PUCK Come hither; I am here.
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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.
[Lies down.]
By day’s approach look to be visited. [Sleeps.]
430
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,
435
Steal me awhile from mine own company.
[Lies down and sleeps.]
PUCK Yet but three? Come one more,
