A Midsummer Night's Dream (11 page)

HERMIA
    O me! You
juggler
, you
canker-blossom
²⁸⁹
,

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
²⁹⁵
answers from my gentle tongue?

Fie, fie! You counterfeit, you
puppet
²⁹⁶
, you!

HERMIA
    Puppet? Why so? Ay, that way goes the game.

Now I perceive that she hath made compare

Between our statures, she hath
urged
²⁹⁹
her height,

And with her
personage
³⁰⁰
, 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 low am I, thou
painted
maypole
³⁰⁴
? 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
³⁰⁸
,

I have no gift at all in
shrewishness
³⁰⁹
;

I am a
right
³¹⁰
maid for my cowardice;

Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think,

Because she is
something lower
³¹²
than myself,

That I can match her.

HERMIA
    Lower? Hark, again.

HELENA
    Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me.

I
evermore
³¹⁶
did love you, Hermia,

Did ever keep your counsels, never wronged you,

Save that, in love unto Demetrius,

I told him of your
stealth
³¹⁹
unto this wood.

He followed you. For love I followed him.

But he hath
chid me hence
³²¹
and threatened me

To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too;

And now,
so
³²³
you will let me quiet go,

To Athens will I bear my folly back

And follow you no further. Let me go.

You see how simple and how
fond
³²⁶
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
³³²
.

HELENA
    O, when she's angry, she is
keen
and
shrewd
³³³
.

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
³³⁷
her to flout me thus?

Let me come to her.

LYSANDER
    Get you gone, you dwarf,

You
minimus
, of hind'ring
knot-grass
³⁴⁰
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
abide
³⁴⁷
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 jowl
³⁵¹
.

HERMIA
    You, mistress, all this
coil
is
'long
³⁵²
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.

OBERON
    This is thy negligence. Still thou mistak'st,

Or else committ'st thy knaveries wilfully.

ROBIN
    Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.

Did not you tell me I should know the man

By the Athenian garments he hath 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
³⁶⁵
,

As
this their
jangling
³⁶⁶
I esteem a sport.

OBERON
    Thou see'st these lovers seek a place to fight:

Hie
³⁶⁸
therefore, Robin, overcast the night,

The starry
welkin
³⁶⁹
cover thou anon

With
drooping
fog as black as
Acheron
³⁷⁰
,

And lead these
testy
³⁷¹
rivals so astray

As
³⁷²
one come not within another's way.

Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue
³⁷³
,

Then stir Demetrius up with bitter
wrong
³⁷⁴
;

And sometime
rail
³⁷⁵
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
³⁷⁸
wings doth creep;

Then crush this
herb
³⁷⁹
into Lysander's eye,

Whose
liquor
hath this
virtuous
³⁸⁰
property,

To take from thence all error with
his
³⁸¹
might,

And make his eyeballs roll with
wonted
³⁸²
sight.

When they next wake, all this
derision
³⁸³

Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision,

And back to Athens shall the lovers
wend
³⁸⁵

With
league
whose
date
³⁸⁶
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 charmèd eye release

From monster's view, and all things shall be peace.

ROBIN
    My fairy lord, this must be done with haste,

For night-swift
dragons
cut
³⁹²
the clouds full fast,

And yonder shines
Aurora's harbinger
³⁹³
,

At whose approach, ghosts, wand'ring here and there,

Troop home to churchyards; damnèd spirits all,

That in
crossways
and
floods
³⁹⁶
have burial,

Already to their wormy beds are gone;

For fear lest day should look their shames upon,

They wilfully themselves exile from light

And must for
aye
consort
⁴⁰⁰
with black-browed night.

OBERON
    But we are spirits of another sort:

I with the
morning's love
have oft
made sport
⁴⁰²
,

And, like a
forester
⁴⁰³
, the groves may tread,

Even till the eastern gate, all fiery red,

Opening on
Neptune
⁴⁰⁵
with fair blessèd beams,

Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams.

But notwithstanding, haste, make no delay:

We may effect this business yet ere day.

ROBIN
    Up and down, up and down,

     I will lead them up and down.

     I am feared in field and town.

     
Goblin
⁴¹²
, lead them up and down.

Here comes one.

LYSANDER
    Where art thou, proud Demetrius? Speak thou now.

ROBIN
    Here, villain,
drawn
⁴¹⁵
and ready.

Where art thou?

LYSANDER
    I will be with thee
straight
⁴¹⁷
.

ROBIN
    Follow me, then, to
plainer
⁴¹⁸
ground.

DEMETRIUS
    Lysander, speak again;

Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?

Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head?

ROBIN
    Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars,

Telling the bushes that thou look'st for wars,

And wilt not come? Come,
recreant
⁴²⁴
, come, thou child.

I'll whip thee with a rod. He is defiled

That draws a sword on thee.

DEMETRIUS
    Yea, art thou there?

ROBIN
    Follow my voice. We'll
try
⁴²⁸
no manhood here.

LYSANDER
    He goes before me and still dares me on.

When I come where he calls, then he's gone.

The villain is much lighter-heeled than I:

I followed fast, but faster he did fly;

That fallen am I in dark uneven way,

And here will rest me. Come, thou gentle day!

For if but once thou show me thy grey light,

I'll find Demetrius and revenge this
spite
⁴³⁶
.

ROBIN
    Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why com'st thou not?

DEMETRIUS
    
Abide
me, if thou dar'st, for well I
wot
⁴³⁸

Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place,

And dar'st not stand, nor look me in the face.

Where art thou now?

ROBIN
    Come hither. I am here.

DEMETRIUS
    Nay then, thou mock'st me. Thou shalt
buy
⁴⁴³
this dear

If ever I thy face by daylight see.

Now, go thy way: faintness
constraineth
⁴⁴⁵
me

To measure out my length on this cold bed.

By day's approach look to be visited.

HELENA
    O weary night, O long and tedious night,

Abate
⁴⁴⁹
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 sometime shuts up sorrow's eye,

Steal me awhile from mine own company.

ROBIN
    Yet but three? Come one more,

Two of both kinds make up four.

Here she comes, curst and sad.

Cupid is a knavish lad,

Thus to make poor females mad.

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!

ROBIN
    On the ground

     Sleep sound.

I'll apply

To your eye,

Gentle lover, remedy.

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
⁴⁷⁸
shall have Jill,

Nought
⁴⁷⁹
shall go ill,

The
man shall have his mare
⁴⁸⁰
again, and all shall be well.