| In himself he is;But in this kind, wanting your father’s voice,The other must be held the worthier. | Theseus |
| Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love,And what is mine my love shall render him.And she is mine, and all my right of herI do estate unto Demetrius. | Egeus |
| Demetrius, I’ll avouch it to his head,Made love to Nedar’s daughter, Helena,And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,Upon this spotted and inconstant man. | Lysander |
| By all the vows that ever men have broke,In number more than ever women spoke,In that same place thou hast appointed me,To-morrow truly will I meet with thee. | Hermia |
| O, teach me how you look, and with what artYou sway the motion of Demetrius’ heart. | Helena |
| The more I love, the more he hateth me. | Helena |
| Before the time I did Lysander see,Seem’d Athens as a paradise to me:O, then, what graces in my love do dwell,That he hath turn’d a heaven unto a hell! | Hermia |
| Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;And therefore is wing’d Cupid painted blind:Nor hath Love’s mind of any judgement taste;Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:And therefore is Love said to be a child,Because in choice he is so oft beguiled. | Helena |
| That will ask some tears in the true performing ofit: if I do it, let the audience look to theireyes; I will move storms, I will condole in somemeasure. To the rest: yet my chief humour is for atyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part totear a cat in, to make all split. | Bottom |
| An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too, I’llspeak in a monstrous little voice. ‘Thisne,Thisne;’ ‘Ah, Pyramus, lover dear! thy Thisby dear,and lady dear!’ | Bottom |
| You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus is asweet-faced man; a proper man, as one shall see in asummer’s day; a most lovely gentleman-like man:therefore you must needs play Pyramus. | Quince |
| Take heed the queen come not within his sight;For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,Because that she as her attendant hathA lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king; | Puck |
| I jest to Oberon and make him smileWhen I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:And sometime lurk I in a gossip’s bowl,In very likeness of a roasted crab,And when she drinks, against her lips I bobAnd on her wither’d dewlap pour the ale. | Puck |
| These are the forgeries of jealousy:And never, since the middle summer’s spring,Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,By paved fountain or by rushy brook,Or in the beached margent of the sea,To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,But with thy brawls thou hast disturb’d our sport. | Titania |
| And this same progeny of evils comesFrom our debate, from our dissension;We are their parents and original. | Titania |
| If you will patiently dance in our roundAnd see our moonlight revels, go with us;If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts. | Titania |
| Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this groveTill I torment thee for this injury. | Oberon |
| Yet mark’d I where the bolt of Cupid fell:It fell upon a little western flower,Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound,And maidens call it love-in-idleness. | Oberon |
| And here am I, and wode within this wood,Because I cannot meet my Hermia.Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more. | Demetrius |
| Do I entice you? do I speak you fair?Or, rather, do I not in plainest truthTell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you? | Demetrius |
| Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,Unworthy as I am, to follow you.What worser place can I beg in your love,–And yet a place of high respect with me,–Than to be used as you use your dog? | Helena |
| It is not night when I do see your face,Therefore I think I am not in the night;Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,For you in my respect are all the world | Helena |
| I’ll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,To die upon the hand I love so well. | Helena |
| Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove:A sweet Athenian lady is in loveWith a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes;But do it when the next thing he espiesMay be the lady: thou shalt know the manBy the Athenian garments he hath on. | Oberon |
| One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;One heart, one bed, two bosoms and one troth. | Lysander |
| But, gentle friend, for love and courtesyLie further off; in human modesty,Such separation as may well be saidBecomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid, | Hermia |
| Pretty soul! she durst not lieNear this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.Churl, upon thy eyes I throwAll the power this charm doth owe. | Puck |
| And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake.Transparent………! Nature shows art,That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart. | Lysander |
| Who will not change a raven for a dove?The will of man is by his reason sway’d;And reason says you are the worthier maid.Things growing are not ripe until their seasonSo I, being young, till now ripe not to reason; | Lysander |
| perforce I must confessI thought you lord of more true gentleness.O, that a lady, of one man refused.Should of another therefore be abused! | Helena |
| So thou, my surfeit and my heresy,Of all be hated, but the most of me! | Lysander |
| Methought a serpent eat my heart away,And you sat smiling at his cruel pray. | Hermia |
| Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem tosay, we will do no harm with our swords, and thatPyramus is not killed indeed | Bottom |
| there is not a more fearfulwild-fowl than your lion living; and we ought tolook to ‘t. | Bottom |
| Come, sit down,every mother’s son, and rehearse your parts.Pyramus, you begin: when you have spoken yourspeech, enter into that brake: | Quince |
| I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me;to fright me, if they could. But I will not stirfrom this place, do what they can: I will walk upand down here, and I will sing, that they shall hearI am not afraid. | Bottom |
| I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:Mine ear is much enamour’d of thy note;So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape; | Titania |
| Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful | Titania |
| And, at our stamp, here o’er and o’er one falls;He murder cries and help from Athens calls.Their sense thus weak, lost with their fearsthus strong,Made senseless things begin to do them wrong; | Puck |
| It cannot be but thou hast murder’d him;So should a murderer look, so dead, so grim. | Hermia |
| The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:Lovers, to bed; ’tis almost fairy time.I fear we shall out-sleep the coming mornAs much as we this night have overwatch’d.This palpable-gross play hath well beguiledThe heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed.A fortnight hold we this solemnity,In nightly revels and new jollity. | Theseus |
| Asleep, my love?What, dead, my dove?O Pyramus, arise!Speak, speak. Quite dumb?Dead, dead? | Thisbe |
| Come, tears, confound;Out, sword, and woundThe pap of Pyramus;Ay, that left pap,Where heart doth hop: | Pyramus |
| No, in truth, sir, he should not. ‘Deceiving me’is Thisby’s cue: she is to enter now, and I am tospy her through the wall. You shall see, it willfall pat as I told you. Yonder she comes. | Bottom |
| The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again. | Theseus |
| ‘A tedious brief scene of young PyramusAnd his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.’Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow.How shall we find the concord of this discord? | Theseus |
| But all the story of the night told over,And all their minds transfigured so together,More witnesseth than fancy’s imagesAnd grows to something of great constancy;But, howsoever, strange and admirable. | Hippolyta |
| More strange than true: I never may believeThese antique fables, nor these fairy toys.Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,Such shaping fantasies, that apprehendMore than cool reason ever comprehends.The lunatic, the lover and the poetAre of imagination all compact: | Theseus |
| All that I will tell you is, thatthe duke hath dined. Get your apparel together,good strings to your beards, new ribbons to yourpumps; meet presently at the palace; every man looko’er his part; for the short and the long is, ourplay is preferred. | Bottom |
| I have had a most rarevision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man tosay what dream it was: man is but an ass, if he goabout to expound this dream. | Bottom |
| Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:Of this discourse we more will hear anon.Egeus, I will overbear your will;For in the temple by and by with usThese couples shall eternally be knit: | Theseus |
| My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,Of this their purpose hither to this wood;And I in fury hither follow’d them,Fair Helena in fancy following me. | Demetrius |
| Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough:I beg the law, the law, upon his head.They would have stolen away; they would, Demetrius,Thereby to have defeated you and me,You of your wife and me of my consent,Of my consent that she should be your wife. | Egeus |
| I pray you all, stand up.I know you two are rival enemies:How comes this gentle concord in the world,That hatred is so far from jealousy,To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity? | Theseus |
| No doubt they rose up early to observeThe rite of May, and hearing our intent,Came here in grace our solemnity.But speak, Egeus; is not this the dayThat Hermia should give answer of her choice? | Theseus |
| Come, my lord, and in our flightTell me how it came this nightThat I sleeping here was foundWith these mortals on the ground. | Titania |
| Come, my queen, take hands with me,And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.Now thou and I are new in amity,And will to-morrow midnight solemnlyDance in Duke Theseus’ house triumphantly,And bless it to all fair prosperity: | Oberon |
| Her dotage now I do begin to pity:For, meeting her of late behind the wood,Seeking sweet favours from this hateful fool,I did upbraid her and fall out with her;For she his hairy temples then had roundedWith a coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers; | Oberon |
| Truly, a peck of provender: I could munch your gooddry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottleof hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow. | Bottom |
| O weary night, O long and tedious night,Abate thy hour! Shine comforts from the east,That I may back to Athens by daylight,From these that my poor company detest:And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow’s eye,Steal me awhile from mine own company. | Helena |
| Thou see’st these lovers seek a place to fight:Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night;The starry welkin cover thou anonWith drooping fog as black as Acheron,And lead these testy rivals so astrayAs one come not within another’s way. | Oberon |
| I will not trust you, I,Nor longer stay in your curst company.Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray,My legs are longer though, to run away. | Helena |
| ‘Little’ again! nothing but ‘low’ and ‘little’!Why will you suffer her to flout me thus?Let me come to her. | Hermia |
| O, when she’s angry, she is keen and shrewd!She was a vixen when she went to school;And though she be but little, she is fierce. | Helena |
| He follow’d you; for love I follow’d him;But he hath chid me hence and threaten’d meTo strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too:And now, so you will let me quiet go,To Athens will I bear my folly back | Helena |
| I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen,Let her not hurt me: I was never curst;I have no gift at all in shrewishness;I am a right maid for my cowardice:Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think,Because she is something lower than myself,That I can match her. | Helena |
| How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak;How low am I? I am not yet so lowBut that my nails can reach unto thine eyes. | Hermia |
| O me! you juggler! you canker-blossom!You thief of love! what, have you come by nightAnd stolen my love’s heart from him? | Hermia |
| Ay, do, persever, counterfeit sad looks,Make mouths upon me when I turn my back;Wink each at other; hold the sweet jest up:This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled.If you have any pity, grace, or manners,You would not make me such an argument.But fare ye well: ’tis partly my own fault;Which death or absence soon shall remedy. | Helena |
| Have you conspired, have you with these contrivedTo bait me with this foul derision?Is all the counsel that we two have shared,The sisters’ vows, the hours that we have spent,When we have chid the hasty-footed timeFor parting us,–O, is it all forgot? | Helena |
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Important Quotes
July 19, 2019