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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 3Scene 2
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Language
Proverbs
Act 3,
Scene 2
Lines 450-466

An explanation of Robin’s references to several proverbs at the end of Act 3, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Robin

      On the ground
      Sleep sound.
      I'll apply
      To your eye,
      Gentle lover, remedy.
[He drops the flower’s nectar on Lysander’s eyelids]
      When thou wakest
      Thou takest
      True delight
      In the sight
      Of thy former lady's eye.
And the country proverb known,
"That every man should take his own",
In your waking shall be shown.
      Jack shall have Jill,
      Naught shall go ill,
      The man shall have his mare again,
      And all shall be well.
[Exit Robin]

Some well known proverbs from the period:

  1. All is well and Jack shall have Jill.
  2. Let every man have his own.
  3. All is well, and the man has his mare (female horse) again.