LITMIR.BIZ

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steep themselves in nights;

       Four nights will quickly dream away the time;

       And then the moon, like to a silver bow

       New bent in heaven, shall behold the night

       Of our solemnities.

       THESEUS

       Go, Philostrate,

       Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;

       Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;

       Turn melancholy forth to funerals—

       The pale companion is not for our pomp.—

       [Exit PHILOSTRATE.]

       Hippolyta, I woo’d thee with my sword,

       And won thy love doing thee injuries;

       But I will wed thee in another key,

       With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling.

       [Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEMETRIUS.]

       EGEUS

       Happy be Theseus, our renownèd duke!

       THESEUS

       Thanks, good Egeus: what’s the news with thee?

       EGEUS

       Full of vexation come I, with complaint

       Against my child, my daughter Hermia.—

       Stand forth, Demetrius.—My noble lord,

       This man hath my consent to marry her:—

       Stand forth, Lysander;—and, my gracious duke,

       This man hath bewitch’d the bosom of my child.

       Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,

       And interchang’d love-tokens with my child:

       Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,

       With feigning voice, verses of feigning love;

       And stol’n the impression of her fantasy

       With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,

       Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats,—messengers

       Of strong prevailment in unharden’d youth;—

       With cunning hast thou filch’d my daughter’s heart;

       Turned her obedience, which is due to me,

       To stubborn harshness.—And, my gracious duke,

       Be it so she will not here before your grace

       Consent to marry with Demetrius,

       I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,—

       As she is mine I may dispose of her:

       Which shall be either to this gentleman

       Or to her death; according to our law

       Immediately provided in that case.

       THESEUS

       What say you, Hermia? be advis’d, fair maid:

       To you your father should be as a god;

       One that compos’d your beauties: yea, and one

       To whom you are but as a form in wax,

       By him imprinted, and within his power

       To leave the figure, or disfigure it.

       Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.

       HERMIA

       So is Lysander.

       THESEUS

       In himself he is:

       But, in this kind, wanting your father’s voice,

       The other must be held the worthier.

       HERMIA

       I would my father look’d but with my eyes.

       THESEUS

       Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.

       HERMIA

       I do entreat your grace to pardon me.

       I know not by what power I am made bold,

       Nor how it may concern my modesty

       In such a presence here to plead my thoughts:

       But I beseech your grace that I may know

       The worst that may befall me in this case

       If I refuse to wed Demetrius.

       THESEUS

       Either to die the death, or to abjure

       For ever the society of men.

       Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires,

       Know of your youth, examine well your blood,

       Whether, 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,

      

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