HERMIA
Why, get you gone: who is't that hinders you?
HELENA
A foolish heart, that I leave here behind.
HERMIA
What, with Lysander?
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!
HELENA
She was a vixen when she went to school;
HELENA
And though she be but little, she is fierce.
HERMIA
'Little' again! nothing but 'low' and 'little'!
HERMIA
Why will you suffer her to flout me thus?
HERMIA
Let me come to her.
LYSANDER
Get you gone, you dwarf;
LYSANDER
You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made;
LYSANDER
You bead, you acorn.
DEMETRIUS
You are too officious
DEMETRIUS
In her behalf that scorns your services.
DEMETRIUS
Let her alone: speak not of Helena;
DEMETRIUS
Take not her part; for, if thou dost intend
DEMETRIUS
Never so little show of love to her,
DEMETRIUS
Thou shalt aby it.
LYSANDER
Now she holds me not;
LYSANDER
Now follow, if thou darest, to try whose right,
LYSANDER
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:
HELENA
I will not trust you, I,
HELENA
Nor longer stay in your curst company.
HELENA
Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray,
HELENA
My legs are longer though, to run away.
HERMIA
I am amazed, and know not what to say.
OBERON
This is thy negligence: still thou mistakest,
OBERON
Or else committ'st thy knaveries wilfully.
PUCK
Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.
PUCK
Did not you tell me I should know the man
PUCK
By the Athenian garment be had on?
PUCK
And so far blameless proves my enterprise,
PUCK
That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes;
PUCK
And so far am I glad it so did sort
PUCK
As this their jangling I esteem a sport.
OBERON
Thou see'st these lovers seek a place to fight:
OBERON
Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night;
OBERON
The starry welkin cover thou anon
OBERON
With drooping fog as black as Acheron,
OBERON
And lead these testy rivals so astray
OBERON
As one come not within another's way.
OBERON
Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue,
OBERON
Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong;
OBERON
And sometime rail thou like Demetrius;
OBERON
And from each other look thou lead them thus,
OBERON
Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep
OBERON
With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep:
OBERON
Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye;
OBERON
Whose liquor hath this virtuous property,
OBERON
To take from thence all error with his might,
OBERON
And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.
OBERON
When they next wake, all this derision
OBERON
Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision,
OBERON
And back to Athens shall the lovers wend,
OBERON
With league whose date till death shall never end.
OBERON
Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,
OBERON
I'll to my queen and beg her Indian boy;
OBERON
And then I will her charmed eye release
OBERON
From monster's view, and all things shall be peace.
PUCK
My fairy lord, this must be done with haste,
PUCK
For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,
PUCK
And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger;
PUCK
At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there,
PUCK
Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all,
PUCK
That in crossways and floods have burial,
PUCK
Already to their wormy beds are gone;
PUCK
For fear lest day should look their shames upon,
PUCK
They willfully themselves exile from light
PUCK
And must for aye consort with black-brow'd night.
OBERON
But we are spirits of another sort:
OBERON
I with the morning's love have oft made sport,
OBERON
And, like a forester, the groves may tread,
OBERON
Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red,
OBERON
Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,
OBERON
Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams.
OBERON
But, notwithstanding, haste; make no delay:
OBERON
We may effect this business yet ere day.
PUCK
Up and down, up and down,
PUCK
I will lead them up and down:
PUCK
I am fear'd in field and town:
PUCK
Goblin, lead them up and down.
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.
Exit LYSANDER, as following the voice
DEMETRIUS
Lysander! speak again:
DEMETRIUS
Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?
DEMETRIUS
Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head?
PUCK
Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars,
PUCK
Telling the bushes that thou look'st for wars,
PUCK
And wilt not come? Come, recreant; come, thou child;
PUCK
I'll whip thee with a rod: he is defiled
PUCK
That draws a sword on thee.
DEMETRIUS
Yea, art thou there?
PUCK
Follow my voice: we'll try no manhood here.
LYSANDER
He goes before me and still dares me on:
LYSANDER
When I come where he calls, then he is gone.
LYSANDER
The villain is much lighter-heel'd than I:
LYSANDER
I follow'd fast, but faster he did fly;
LYSANDER
That fallen am I in dark uneven way,
LYSANDER
And here will rest me.
LYSANDER
Come, thou gentle day!
LYSANDER
For if but once thou show me thy grey light,
LYSANDER
I'll find Demetrius and revenge this spite.
Re-enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS
PUCK
Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why comest thou not?
DEMETRIUS
Abide me, if thou darest; for well I wot
DEMETRIUS
Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place,
DEMETRIUS
And darest not stand, nor look me in the face.
DEMETRIUS
Where art thou now?
PUCK
Come hither: I am here.
DEMETRIUS
Nay, then, thou mock'st me. Thou shalt buy this dear,
DEMETRIUS
If ever I thy face by daylight see:
DEMETRIUS
Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me
DEMETRIUS
To measure out my length on this cold bed.
DEMETRIUS
By day's approach look to be visited.
HELENA
O weary night, O long and tedious night,
HELENA
Abate thy hour! Shine comforts from the east,
HELENA
That I may back to Athens by daylight,
HELENA
From these that my poor company detest:
HELENA
And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye,
HELENA
Steal me awhile from mine own company.
PUCK
Yet but three? Come one more;
PUCK
Two of both kinds make up four.
PUCK
Here she comes, curst and sad:
PUCK
Cupid is a knavish lad,
PUCK
Thus to make poor females mad.
HERMIA
Never so weary, never so in woe,
HERMIA
Bedabbled with the dew and torn with briers,
HERMIA
I can no further crawl, no further go;
HERMIA
My legs can keep no pace with my desires.
HERMIA
Here will I rest me till the break of day.
HERMIA
Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray!
PUCK
Gentle lover, remedy.
Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER's eyes
PUCK
Of thy former lady's eye:
PUCK
And the country proverb known,
PUCK
That every man should take his own,
PUCK
In your waking shall be shown:
PUCK
Jack shall have Jill;
PUCK
Nought shall go ill;
PUCK
The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.
