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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 3Scene 1
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“keep little company”
Imagery
Act 3,
Scene 1
Lines 130-139

An explanation of Bottom’s description of “love and reason” in Act 3, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Titania

I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again.
Mine ear is much enamored of thy note;
So is mine eye enthrallèd to thy shape.
And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.

Bottom

Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason
for that. And yet, to say the truth, reason and love
keep little company together nowadays; the more
the pity that some honest neighbors will not make them
friends. Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.

Bottom is imagining reason (good judgement) and love as neighbors who don't get along ("keep little company"), and he thinks it's a pity that someone doesn't make them friends.