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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 2Scene 2
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"ripe to reason"
Metaphor
Act 2,
Scene 2
Lines 116-128

An explanation of the fruit metaphor in Act 2, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Helena

Yet Hermia still loves you; then be content.

Lysander

Content with Hermia? No, I do repent
The tedious minutes I with her have spent.
Not Hermia but Helena I love.
Who will not change a raven for a dove?
The will of man is by his reason swayed,
And reason says you are the worthier maid.
Things growing are not ripe until their season;
So I, being young, till now not ripe to reason.
And touching now the point of human skill,
Reason becomes the marshal to my will,
And leads me to your eyes, where I o'erlook
Love's stories written in love's richest book.

Lysander says that he had pursued Hermia as a youth when he was like an unripe fruit and not fully developed, but now that he's reached maturity, his rational intellect is in charge and he prefers Helena.