Lys. Hang off, thou cat, thou burr: vile thing, let loose; Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent. Her. Why are you grown so rude? what change is this, Sweet love? Lys. Thy love! out, tawny Tartar, out! Out, loathed medicine! hated potion, hence! Hel. Yes, 'sooth: and so do you. Lys. Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee. Dem. I would, I had your bond; for, I perceive, A weak bond holds you; I'll not trust your word. Lys. What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead? Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so. Her. What, can you do me greater harm than hate? Hate me! wherefore? O me! what news, my love? Am not I Hermia? Are not you Lysander? I am as fair now as I was erewhile. Since night you lov'd me; yet since night you left me: Why, then you left me,-O, the gods forbid !— Lys. Ay, by my life; And never did desire to see thee more. Therefore, be out of hope, of question, doubt, That I do hate thee, and love Helena. Her. O me, you juggler! you canker-blossom 26 ! You thief of love! what, have you come by night, And stol'n my love's heart from him? 26 A worm that preys on the leaves or buds of flowers, always beginning in the middle. So before in this play: Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds.' Hel. Fine, i'faith! Have you no modesty, no maiden shame, Her. Puppet! why so? Ay,that way goes the game. But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes. Hel. I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen, Let her not hurt me: I was never curst 27; 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, Her. Lower! hark, again. Hel. Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me. Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you; I told him of your stealth unto this wood: 27 i. e. froward, cross, ill-conditioned, or ill-spoken. Her. Why, get you gone: Who is't that hinders Hel. A foolish heart that I leave here behind. Hel. With Demetrius. Lys. Be not afraid: she shall not harm thee, Helena. Dem. No,sir; she shall not, though you take her part. Hel. 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. Her. Little again? nothing but low and little? Why will you suffer her to flout me thus? Let me come to her. Lys. Get you gone, you dwarf; You minimus of hind'ring knot-grass 29 made; You bead, you acorn. Dem. You are too officious, In her behalf that scorns your services: Let her alone; speak not of Helena; Take not her part: for if thou dost intend 30 Thou shalt aby it 31. Lys. Now she holds me not; Now follow if thou dar'st, to try whose right Dem. Follow? nay, I'll go with thee cheek by jole. [Exeunt Lys. and DEM. Her. You, mistress, all this coil is 'long of you: Nay, go not back. Hel. I will not trust you, I; Nor longer stay in your curst company. 29 Anciently knot-grass was believed to prevent the growth of children. 30 Pretend. 31 Aby it, for abide it, i. e. pay dearly for it, rue it. Your hands, than mine, are quicker for a fray; [Exit, pursuing HELENA. Obe. This is thy negligence: still thou mistak'st, Or else committ'st thy knaveries wilfully. Puck. Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook. Did not you tell me, I should know the man By the Athenian garments he had on? And so far blameless proves my enterprise, That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes: And so far am I glad it so did sort 32, As this their jangling I esteem a sport. Obe. Thou seest, these lovers seek a place to fight: Hie, therefore, Robin, overcast the night; The starry welkin cover thou anon With drooping fog, as black as Acheron; As one come not within another's way. And from each other look thou lead them thus, Shall seem a dream, and fruitless vision; I'll to my queen, and beg her Indian boy; 32 Chance, fall out, from sort, French. 33 Go. And then I will her charmed eye release 34 At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there, I with the Morning's love 37 have oft made sport; We [Exit OBERON. Puck. Up and down, up and down, I will lead them up and down: 34 So in Cymbeline, Act ii. Sc. 11: 'Swift, swift, ye dragons of the night.' See note on that passage. 35 The ghosts of self-murderers, who are buried in crossroads; and of those who being drowned were condemned (according to the opinion of the ancients) to wander for a hundred years, as the rites of sepulture had never been regularly bestowed on their bodies. 36 Or that thy beauties lie in wormy bed.'-Milton's Ode on the Death of a fair Infant. 37 Cephalus, the mighty hunter, and paramour of Aurora, was here probably meant. 38 Oberon here boasts that he was not compelled, like meaner spirits, to vanish at the first dawn. |