OBERON
Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove
OBERON
Till I torment thee for this injury.
OBERON
My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememberest
OBERON
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
OBERON
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back
OBERON
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath
OBERON
That the rude sea grew civil at her song
OBERON
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
OBERON
To hear the sea-maid's music.
OBERON
That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,
OBERON
Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
OBERON
Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took
OBERON
At a fair vestal throned by the west,
OBERON
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
OBERON
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;
OBERON
But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
OBERON
Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
OBERON
And the imperial votaress passed on,
OBERON
In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
OBERON
Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
OBERON
It fell upon a little western flower,
OBERON
Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,
OBERON
And maidens call it love-in-idleness.
OBERON
Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once:
OBERON
The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid
OBERON
Will make or man or woman madly dote
OBERON
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
OBERON
Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again
OBERON
Ere the leviathan can swim a league.
PUCK
I'll put a girdle round about the earth
OBERON
Having once this juice,
OBERON
I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,
OBERON
And drop the liquor of it in her eyes.
OBERON
The next thing then she waking looks upon,
OBERON
Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
OBERON
On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,
OBERON
She shall pursue it with the soul of love:
OBERON
And ere I take this charm from off her sight,
OBERON
As I can take it with another herb,
OBERON
I'll make her render up her page to me.
OBERON
But who comes here? I am invisible;
OBERON
And I will overhear their conference.
Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA, following him
DEMETRIUS
I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
DEMETRIUS
Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?
DEMETRIUS
The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.
DEMETRIUS
Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood;
DEMETRIUS
And here am I, and wode within this wood,
DEMETRIUS
Because I cannot meet my Hermia.
DEMETRIUS
Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.
HELENA
You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;
HELENA
But yet you draw not iron, for my heart
HELENA
Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw,
HELENA
And I shall have no power to follow you.
DEMETRIUS
Do I entice you? do I speak you fair?
DEMETRIUS
Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth
DEMETRIUS
Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you?
HELENA
And even for that do I love you the more.
HELENA
I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,
HELENA
The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:
HELENA
Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
HELENA
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
HELENA
Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
HELENA
What worser place can I beg in your love,--
HELENA
And yet a place of high respect with me,--
HELENA
Than to be used as you use your dog?
DEMETRIUS
Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit;
DEMETRIUS
For I am sick when I do look on thee.
HELENA
And I am sick when I look not on you.
DEMETRIUS
You do impeach your modesty too much,
DEMETRIUS
To leave the city and commit yourself
DEMETRIUS
Into the hands of one that loves you not;
DEMETRIUS
To trust the opportunity of night
DEMETRIUS
And the ill counsel of a desert place
DEMETRIUS
With the rich worth of your virginity.
HELENA
Your virtue is my privilege: for that
HELENA
It is not night when I do see your face,
HELENA
Therefore I think I am not in the night;
HELENA
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,
HELENA
For you in my respect are all the world:
HELENA
Then how can it be said I am alone,
HELENA
When all the world is here to look on me?
DEMETRIUS
I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,
DEMETRIUS
And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.
HELENA
The wildest hath not such a heart as you.
HELENA
Run when you will, the story shall be changed:
HELENA
Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;
HELENA
The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind
HELENA
Makes speed to catch the tiger; bootless speed,
HELENA
When cowardice pursues and valour flies.
DEMETRIUS
I will not stay thy questions; let me go:
DEMETRIUS
Or, if thou follow me, do not believe
DEMETRIUS
But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.
HELENA
Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
HELENA
You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!
HELENA
Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex:
HELENA
We cannot fight for love, as men may do;
HELENA
We should be wood and were not made to woo.
HELENA
I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,
HELENA
To die upon the hand I love so well.
OBERON
Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this grove,
OBERON
Thou shalt fly him and he shall seek thy love.
Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.
OBERON
I pray thee, give it me.
OBERON
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
OBERON
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
OBERON
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
OBERON
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
OBERON
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
OBERON
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
OBERON
And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,
OBERON
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:
OBERON
And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,
OBERON
And make her full of hateful fantasies.
OBERON
Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove:
OBERON
A sweet Athenian lady is in love
OBERON
With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes;
OBERON
But do it when the next thing he espies
OBERON
May be the lady: thou shalt know the man
OBERON
By the Athenian garments he hath on.
OBERON
Effect it with some care, that he may prove
OBERON
More fond on her than she upon her love:
OBERON
And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.
PUCK
Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so.
