Or on Diana's altar to protest, For aye, austerity and single life. Dem. Relent, sweet Hermia;-and, Lysander, yield Thy crazed title to my certain right. Lys. You have her father's love, Demetrius; Ege. Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love, Lys. I am, my lord, as well derived as he, And, which is more than all these boasts can be, Why should not I then prosecute my right? Upon this spotted1 and inconstant man. The. I must confess, that I have heard so much, And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof; But, being over-full of self-affairs, My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come, I must employ you in some business 1 As spotless is innocent, so spotted is wicked. Ege. With duty and desire we follow you. [Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, Egeus, DEMETRIUS, and Train. Why is your cheek Lys. How now, my love! Why is so pale ? How chance the roses there do fade so fast? Her. Belike, for want of rain; which I could well Beteem1 them from the tempest of mine eyes. Lys. Ah me! For aught that ever I could read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth! But either it was different in blood,— Her. O cross! too high to be enthralled to low! That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth, The jaws of darkness do devour it up. So quick bright things come to confusion. Her. If then true lovers have been ever crossed, It stands as an edíct in destiny. Then let us teach our trial patience, Because it is a customary cross; As due to love, as thoughts, and dreams, and sighs, Lys. A good persuasion; therefore, hear me, Her mia. have a widow aunt, a dowager Of great revenue, and she hath no child. From Athens is her house remote seven leagues; 1 Bestow, or, according to Steevens, pour out. 2 Momentary. 3 Blackened, as with smut, coal VOL. 11. 2 And she respects me as her only son. Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night; There will I stay for thee. Her. My good Lysander! I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow; By his best arrow, with the golden head; By the simplicity of Venus' doves; By that which knitteth souls, and prospers loves; Lys. Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena. Enter. HELENA. Her. God speed fair Helena! Whither away? Hel. Call you me fair? That fair again unsay. Demetrius loves your fair.2 O happy fair! Your eyes are lode-stars;3 and your tongue's sweet air More tunable than lark to shepherd's ear, When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear. Sickness is catching; O, were favor so, Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go. My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye, 1 Shakspeare forgot that Theseus performed his exploits before the Trojan war, and, consequently, long before the death of Dido. 2 Fair for fairness, beauty-very common in writers of Shakspeare's age. 3 The lode-star is the leading or guiding star, that is, the polar-star The magnet is, for the same reason, called the lode-stone. 4 Countenance, feature. We.e the world mine, Demetrius being bated, Her. I frown upon him, yet he loves me still. Her. I give him curses, yet he gives me love,— Her. Take comfort; he no more shall see my face: Lysander and myself will fly this place. Before the time I did Lysander see, Seemed Athens like a paradise to me. O, then, what graces in my love do dwell, That he hath turned a heaven unto hell! Lys. Helen, to you our minds we will unfold. [Exit HERMIA. Lys. I will, my Hermia.-Helena, adieu, As you on him, Demetrius dote on you! 1 i. e. changed, transformed. [Exit LYSANDER Hel. How happy some o'er other some can be! Things base and vile, holding no quantity, Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, To have his sight thither and back again. [Exit. SCENE II. The same. A Room in a Cottage. Enter SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, QUINCE, and STARVELING. Quin. Is all our company here? Bot. You were best to call them generally, man by man, according to the scrip. Quin. Here is the scroll of every man's name, which is thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our interlude before the duke and duchess, on his wedding-day at night. |