A Midsummer Night’s Dream - William Shakespeare

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if you yield not to your father's choice,

      You can endure the livery of a nun;

      For aye to be shady cloister mew'd,

      To live a barren sister all your life,

      Chanting faint hymns to the cold, fruitless moon.

      Thrice-blessèd they that master so their blood

      To undergo such maiden pilgrimage:

      But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd

      Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn,

      Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness.

      HERMIA

      So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,

      Ere I will yield my virgin patent up

      Unto his lordship, whose unwishèd yoke

      My soul consents not to give sovereignty.

      THESEUS

      Take time to pause; and by the next new moon,—

      The sealing-day betwixt my love and me

      For everlasting bond of fellowship,—

      Upon that day either prepare to die

      For disobedience to your father's will;

      Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would;

      Or on Diana's altar to protest

      For aye austerity and single life.

      DEMETRIUS

      Relent, sweet Hermia;—and, Lysander, yield

      Thy crazèd title to my certain right.

      LYSANDER

      You have her father's love, Demetrius;

      Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him.

      EGEUS

      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 her

      I do estate unto Demetrius.

      LYSANDER

      I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he,

      As well possess'd; my love is more than his;

      My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd,

      If not with vantage, as Demetrius's;

      And, which is more than all these boasts can be,

      I am belov'd of beauteous Hermia:

      Why should not I then prosecute my right?

      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.

      THESEUS

      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;

      And come, Egeus; you shall go with me;

      I have some private schooling for you both.—

      For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself

      To fit your fancies to your father's will,

      Or else the law of Athens yields you up,—

      Which by no means we may extenuate,—

      To death, or to a vow of single life.—

      Come, my Hippolyta: what cheer, my love?

      Demetrius, and Egeus, go along;

      I must employ you in some business

      Against our nuptial, and confer with you

      Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.

      EGEUS

      With duty and desire we follow you.

      [Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, DEMETRIUS, and Train.]

      LYSANDER

      How now, my love! why is your cheek so pale?

      How chance the roses there do fade so fast?

      HERMIA

      Belike for want of rain, which I could well

      Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.

      LYSANDER

      Ah me! for aught that I could ever read,

      Could ever hear by tale or history,

      The course of true love never did run smooth:

      But either it was different in blood,—

      HERMIA

      O cross! Too high to be enthrall'd to low!

      LYSANDER

      Or else misgraffèd in respect of years;—

      HERMIA

      O spite! Too old to be engag'd to young!

      LYSANDER

      Or else it stood upon the choice of friends:

      HERMIA

      O hell! to choose love by another's eye!

      LYSANDER

      Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,

      War, death, or sickness, did lay siege to it,

      Making it momentary as a sound,

      Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;

      Brief as the lightning in the collied night

      That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,

      And ere a man hath power to say, Behold!

      The jaws of darkness do devour it up:

      So quick bright things come to confusion.

      HERMIA

      If then true lovers have ever cross'd,

      It stands as an edict 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,

      Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers.

      LYSANDER

      A good persuasion; therefore, hear me, Hermia.

      I have a widow aunt, a dowager

      Of great revenue, and she hath no child:

      From Athens is her house remote seven leagues;

      And she respects me as her only son.

      There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;

      And to that place the sharp Athenian law

      Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then,

      Steal forth thy father's house tomorrow night;

      And in the wood, a league without the town,

      Where I did meet thee once with Helena,

      To do observance to a morn of May,

      There will I stay for thee.

      HERMIA

      My good Lysander!

      I swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow,

      By his best arrow, with the golden head,

      By

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