Lysander Content with Hermia? No, I do repent The tedious minutes I with her have spent. Not Hermia but Helena I love. Who will not change a raven for a dove? The will of man is by his reason swayed, And reason says you are the worthier maid. Things growing are not ripe until their season; So I, being young, till now not ripe to reason. And touching now the point of human skill, Reason becomes the marshal to my will, And leads me to your eyes, where I o'erlook Love's stories written in love's richest book. Read more about Act 2, Scene 2: Popup Note Index Item: “love’s richest book”
Hermia Lie further off yet; do not lie so near. Lysander O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence! Love takes the meaning in love's conference. I mean that my heart unto yours is knit, So that but one heart we can make of it. Two bosoms interchainèd with an oath — So, then, two bosoms and a single troth. Then by your side no bedroom me deny, For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie. Hermia Lysander riddles very prettily. Read more about Act 2, Scene 2: Popup Note Index Item: “lying...lie”
Demetrius I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes, And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts. Helena The wildest hath not such a heart as you. Run when you will the story shall be changed: Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase; The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind Makes speed to catch the tiger. Bootless speed When cowardice pursues and valor flies. Read more about Act 2, Scene 1: Popup Note Index Item: Helena's Chase
Demetrius Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more. Helena You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant, But yet you draw not iron for my heart Is true as steel. Leave you your power to draw, And I shall have no power to follow you. Read more about Act 2, Scene 1: Popup Note Index Item: “true as steel”
Titania Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain, As in revenge have sucked up from the sea Contagious fogs, which, falling in the land, Hath every pelting river made so proud That they have overborne their continents. The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain, The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard. The fold stands empty in the drownèd field, And crows are fatted with the murrain flock. The nine men's morris is filled up with mud, And the quaint mazes in the wanton green For lack of tread are undistinguishable. The human mortals want their winter cheer; No night is now with hymn or carol blessed. Therefore the moon, the governess of floods, Pale in her anger, washes all the air That rheumatic diseases do abound. And thorough this distemperature we see The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose, And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds Is, as in mock’ry, set. The spring, the summer, The childing autumn, angry winter change Their wonted liveries; and the mazèd world, By their increase now knows not which is which. Read more about Act 2, Scene 1: Popup Note Index Item: “governess of floods”
Oberon How canst thou thus for shame, Titania, Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, Knowing I know thy love to Theseus? Didst not thou lead him through the glimmering night From Perigouna, whom he ravished, And make him, with fair Aegles, break his faith With Ariadne and Antiopa? Read more about Act 2, Scene 1: Popup Note Index Item: Perigouna, Aegles, Ariadne, and Antiopa
Robin For Oberon is passing fell and wrath Because that she, as her attendant, hath A lovely boy stolen from an Indian king. She never had so sweet a changeling. And jealous Oberon would have the child Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild. Read more about Act 2, Scene 1: Popup Note Index Item: “changeling”
Fairy And I serve the Fairy Queen To dew her orbs upon the green. The cowslips tall her pensioners be; In their gold coats spots you see, Those be rubies, fairy favors; In those freckles live their savors. I must go seek some dewdrops here, And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear. Read more about Act 2, Scene 1: Popup Note Index Item: “hang a pearl”
