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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 1Scene 1
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"starve our sight"
Wordplay
Act 1,
Scene 1
Lines 208-223

An explanation of the phrase “starve our site” in Act 1, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Lysander

Helen, to you our minds we will unfold.
Tomorrow night, when Phoebe doth behold
Her silver visage in the wat’ry glass
Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass —
A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal —
Through Athens' gates have we devised to steal.

Hermia

And in the wood where often you and I
Upon faint primrose beds were wont to lie,
Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,
There my Lysander and myself shall meet,
And thence from Athens turn away our eyes
To seek new friends and stranger companies.
Farewell, sweet playfellow. Pray thou for us,
And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius –
Keep word, Lysander. We must starve our sight
From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight.

They will not see each other until late tomorrow night, until then starving their eyes of what lovers' eyes want most to devour: the sight of their beloved.