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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 3Scene 2
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"her personage"
Double Meaning
Act 3,
Scene 2
Lines 289-299

An explanation of the double meaning of “stature” and “personage” in Act 3, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Helena

Fie, fie, you counterfeit, you puppet, you!

Hermia

Puppet? Why so? Ay, that way goes the game.
Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures. She hath urged her height.
And with her personage, her tall personage,
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevailed with him.
And are you grown so high in his esteem
Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
How low am I, thou painted maypole? Speak,
How low am I? I am not yet so low
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.

The words "stature" and "personage" might suggest that Helena is also luring Lysander with her family's higher social status.