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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 3Scene 2
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"will even weigh"
Imagery
Act 3,
Scene 2
Lines 122-133

An explanation of the scales imagery in Act 3, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Lysander

Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?
Scorn and derision never come in tears.
Look, when I vow I weep, and vows so born,
In their nativity all truth appears.
How can these things in me seem scorn to you,
Bearing the badge of faith to prove them true?

Helena

You do advance your cunning more and more
When truth kills truth, O devilish holy fray!
These vows are Hermia's. Will you give her o'er ?
Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh;
Your vows to her and me, put in two scales,
Will even weigh – and both as light as tales.

Helena's saying that if you place the oath Lysander made to her and the oath he made to Hermia on either side of a balance scale, they will weigh the same: nothing. Neither one carries any weight because they cancel each other out.