HERMIA

Why, get you gone. Who is’t that hinders you?

HELENA

A foolish heart that I leave here behind.

HERMIA

What, with Lysander?

HELENA With Demetrius.

LYSANDER

Be not afraid; she shall not harm thee, Helena.

DEMETRIUS

No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part.

HELENA

O, when she is angry she is keen and shrewd.

She was a vixen when she went to school,

And though she be but little, she is fierce.

HERMIA

Little again? Nothing but ‘low’ and ‘little’?—

Why will you suffer her to flout me thus?

Let me come to her.

LYSANDER Get you gone, you dwarf,

You minimus of hind’ring knot-grass made,

You bead, you acorn.

DEMETRIUS 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

Never so little show of love to her,

Thou shalt aby it.

LYSANDER Now she holds me not.

Now follow, if thou dar’st, to try whose right,

Of thine or mine, is most in Helena.

DEMETRIUS

Follow? Nay, I’ll go with thee, cheek by jowl.

Exeunt Lysander and Demetrius

HERMIA

You, mistress, all this coil is long of you.

Nay, go not back.

HELENA 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. Exit

HERMIA

I am amazed, and know not what to say. Exit

⌈Oberon and Robin come forward⌉

OBERON

This is thy negligence. Still thou mistak‘st,

Or else commit’st thy knaveries wilfully.

ROBIN

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

As this their jangling I esteem a sport.

OBERON

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,

And lead these testy rivals so astray

As one come not within another’s way.

Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue,

Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong;

And sometime rail thou like Demetrius,

And from each other look thou lead them thus

Till o’er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep

With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep.

Then crush this herb into Lysander’s eye—

Whose liquor hath this virtuous property,

To take from thence all error with his might,

And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.

When they next wake, all this derision

Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision,

And back to Athens shall the lovers wend

With league whose date till death shall never end.

Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,

I’ll to my queen and beg her Indian boy;

And then I will her charmed eye release

From monster’s view, and all things shall be peace.

ROBIN

My fairy lord, this must be done with haste,

For night’s swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,

And yonder shines Aurora’s harbinger,

At whose approach ghosts, wand’ring here and there,

Troop home to churchyards; damned spirits all

That in cross-ways and floods have burial

Already to their wormy beds are gone,

For fear lest day should look their shames upon.

They wilfully themselves exiled from light,

And must for aye consort with black-browed night.

OBERON

But we are spirits of another sort.

I with the morning’s love have oft made sport,

And like a forester the groves may tread

Even till the eastern gate, all fiery red,

Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams

Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams.

But notwithstanding, haste, make no delay;

We may effect this business yet ere day. Exit

ROBIN

Up and down, up and down,

I will lead them up and down.

I am feared in field and town.

Goblin, lead them up and down.

Here comes one.

Enter Lysander

LYSANDER

Where art thou, proud Demetrius? Speak thou now.

ROBIN ⌈shifting place⌉

Here, villain, drawn and ready. Where art thou?

LYSANDER

I will be with thee straight.

ROBIN ⌈shifting place⌉ Follow me then

To plainer ground. ⌈Exit Lysander⌉

Enter Demetrius

DEMETRIUS ⌈shifting place⌉ Lysander, speak again.

Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?

Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head?

ROBIN ⌈shifting place⌉

Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars,

Telling the bushes that thou look’st for wars,

And wilt not come? Come, recreant; come, thou child,

I’ll whip thee with a rod. He is defiled

That draws a sword on thee.

DEMETRIUS ⌈shifting place⌉ Yea, art thou there?

ROBIN ⌈shifting place⌉

Follow my voice; we’ll try no manhood here. Exeunt

3.3 ⌈Enter Lysander⌉

LYSANDER

He goes before me, and still dares me on;

When I come where he calls, then he is gone.

The villain is much lighter heeled than I;

I followed fast, but faster he did fly,