Call You fair That Fair Again for Ere Demetrius Looked on Hermia s Eyne

Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, ⌜and Philostrate,⌝ with others.

THESEUS
Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
Draws on apace. Iv happy days bring in
Another moon. But, O, methinks how slow
This sometime moon ⌜wanes!⌝ She lingers my desires
5 Similar to a stepdame or a dowager
Long withering out a young man'south revenue.
HIPPOLYTA
4 days will chop-chop steep themselves in night;
Iv nights volition quickly dream abroad the fourth dimension;
And so the moon, similar to a silvery bow
10 ⌜New⌝-bent in sky, shall behold the nighttime
Of our solemnities.
THESEUS Become, Philostrate,
Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments.
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth.
15 Turn melancholy along to funerals;
The pale companion is not for our pomp.
⌜Philostrate exits.⌝
Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword
And won thy dearest doing thee injuries,
But I volition wed thee in some other cardinal,
20 With pomp, with triumph, and with reveling.

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9

A Midsummer Night'due south Dream

Human action 1. SC. i

Enter Egeus and his daughter Hermia, and Lysander
and Demetrius.

EGEUS
Happy exist Theseus, our renownèd duke!
THESEUS
Cheers, good Egeus. What'south the news with thee?
EGEUS
Full of vexation come I, with complaint
Against my kid, my daughter Hermia.—
25 Stand forth, Demetrius.—My noble lord,
This man hath my consent to ally her.—
Stand forth, Lysander.—And, my gracious duke,
This man hath bewitched the bosom of my child.—
Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes
xxx And interchanged honey tokens with my child.
Thou hast past moonlight at her window sung
With feigning voice verses of feigning dearest
And stol'n the impression of her fantasy
With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gauds, conceits,
35 Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats—messengers
Of stiff prevailment in unhardened youth.
With cunning hast thou filched my daughter's centre,
Turned her obedience (which is due to me)
To stubborn harshness.—And, my gracious knuckles,
forty Be it and so she volition not here earlier 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
45 Or to her decease, according to our law
Immediately provided in that example.
THESEUS
What say yous, Hermia? Be advised, fair maid.
To you, your father should be as a god,
One that composed your beauties, yea, and one

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11

A Midsummer Dark's Dream

ACT 1. SC. i

50 To whom y'all are merely as a form in wax
By him imprinted, and inside his ability
To exit the figure or disfigure it.
Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.
HERMIA
Then is Lysander.
THESEUS 55 In himself he is,
Merely in this kind, wanting your father'south voice,
The other must exist held the worthier.
HERMIA
I would my begetter looked simply with my optics.
THESEUS
Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.
HERMIA
60 I exercise entreat your Grace to pardon me.
I know not by what ability I am made bold,
Nor how it may business organisation my modesty
In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;
Merely I beseech your Grace that I may know
65 The worst that may befall me in this case
If I turn down to wed Demetrius.
THESEUS
Either to die the decease or to abstain
Forever the club of men.
Therefore, off-white Hermia, question your desires,
70 Know of your youth, examine well your blood,
Whether (if you yield not to your father's choice)
You lot can suffer the livery of a nun,
For yep to be in shady curtilage mewed,
To live a barren sis all your life,
75 Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
Thrice-blessèd they that master and then their blood
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage,
But earthlier happy is the rose distilled
Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn,
80 Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.

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thirteen

A Midsummer Night's Dream

ACT one. SC. one

HERMIA
And then volition I grow, and then live, so die, my lord,
Ere I volition yield my virgin patent up
Unto his Lordship whose unwishèd yoke
My soul consents not to give sovereignty.
THESEUS
85 Take fourth dimension to intermission, and by the next new moon
(The sealing twenty-four hour period betwixt my love and me
For everlasting bond of fellowship),
Upon that twenty-four hours either prepare to dice
For disobedience to your male parent'due south volition,
90 Or else to midweek Demetrius, as he would,
Or on Diana's altar to protestation
For aye austerity and unmarried life.
DEMETRIUS
Relent, sweet Hermia, and, Lysander, yield
Thy crazèd title to my certain correct.
LYSANDER
95 Yous have her father's love, Demetrius.
Let me have Hermia's. Exercise y'all 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
100 I do estate unto Demetrius.
LYSANDER , ⌜to Theseus⌝
I am, my lord, as well derived as he,
Also possessed. My love is more than than his;
My fortunes every way every bit adequately ranked
(If non with vantage) as Demetrius';
105 And (which is more than than all these boasts can be)
I am honey of admirable Hermia.
Why should not I and so prosecute my right?
Demetrius, I'll avouch information technology to his caput,
Made honey to Nedar'southward daughter, Helena,
110 And won her soul; and she, sugariness lady, dotes,

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xv

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Human activity 1. SC. 1

Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,
Upon this spotted and inconstant human.
THESEUS
I must confess that I have heard and so much,
And with Demetrius thought to accept spoke thereof;
115 But, being overfull of self-diplomacy,
My listen did lose it.—But, Demetrius, come,
And come, Egeus; you shall get with me.
I have some private schooling for you both.—
For you, fair Hermia, await you arm yourself
120 To fit your fancies to your father's volition,
Or else the law of Athens yields you lot upwardly
(Which past no means nosotros may extenuate)
To death or to a vow of unmarried life.—
Come up, my Hippolyta. What cheer, my love?—
125 Demetrius and Egeus, go along.
I must employ yous in some business concern
Against our nuptial and confer with you lot
Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.
EGEUS
With duty and want we follow you lot.
⌜All but Hermia and Lysander⌝ go out.
LYSANDER
130 How now, my love? Why is your cheek and then stake?
How chance the roses there do fade then fast?
HERMIA
Belike for want of rain, which I could well
Beteem them from the tempest of my optics.
LYSANDER
Ay me! For zilch that I could ever read,
135 Could e'er 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 loftier to exist enthralled to ⌜low.⌝
LYSANDER
Or else misgraffèd in respect of years—

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17

A Midsummer Night'south Dream

Human action i. SC. 1

HERMIA
140 O spite! Likewise former to be engaged to immature.
LYSANDER
Or else information technology stood upon the choice of friends—
HERMIA
O hell, to choose love by another'due south eyes!
LYSANDER
Or, if at that place were a sympathy in pick,
War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,
145 Making it momentany every bit a sound,
Swift as a shadow, curt every bit any dream,
Brief every bit the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both sky and Earth,
And, ere a man hath power to say "Behold!"
150 The jaws of darkness practise devour information technology upwardly.
Then quick bright things come to confusion.
HERMIA
If and so true lovers have been ever crossed,
Information technology stands every bit an edict in destiny.
Then permit us teach our trial patience
155 Because it is a customary cantankerous,
Every bit due to love equally thoughts and dreams and sighs,
Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers.
LYSANDER
A practiced persuasion. Therefore, hear me, Hermia:
I have a widow aunt, a dowager
160 Of great revenue, and she hath no child.
From Athens is her house remote vii leagues,
And she respects me every bit her merely son.
There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;
And to that place the precipitous Athenian police force
165 Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me, then
Steal forth thy father's house tomorrow night,
And in the woods a league without the town
(Where I did meet thee once with Helena
To do observance to a morn of May),
170 At that place will I stay for thee.

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19

A Midsummer Dark's Dream

ACT ane. SC. 1

HERMIA My good Lysander,
I swear to thee by Cupid'due south strongest bow,
By his all-time arrow with the golden head,
By the simplicity of Venus' doves,
175 By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,
And past that fire which burned the Carthage queen
When the imitation Trojan nether sail was seen,
By all the vows that always men have broke
(In number more than always women spoke),
180 In that same identify thou hast appointed me,
Tomorrow truly volition I see with thee.
LYSANDER
Keep hope, love. Look, here comes Helena.

Enter Helena.

HERMIA
Godspeed, fair Helena. Whither abroad?
HELENA
Call you me "fair"? That "fair" once again unsay.
185 Demetrius loves your off-white. O happy off-white!
Your eyes are lodestars and your tongue's sweet air
More tunable than distraction to shepherd's ear
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds announced.
Sickness is catching. O, were favor then!
190 ⌜Yours would⌝ I catch, off-white Hermia, ere I go.
My ear should grab your voice, my center your center;
My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet
melody.
Were the world mine, Demetrius beingness aside,
195 The rest ⌜I'd⌝ give to be to you translated.
O, teach me how you look and with what art
You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart!
HERMIA
I pout upon him, notwithstanding he loves me nevertheless.
HELENA
O, that your frowns would teach my smiles such
200 skill!

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21

A Midsummer Night'south Dream

ACT i. SC. 1

HERMIA
I give him curses, yet he gives me love.
HELENA
O, that my prayers could such affection move!
HERMIA
The more I hate, the more than he follows me.
HELENA
The more I dearest, the more he hateth me.
HERMIA
205 His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.
HELENA
None but your beauty. Would that fault were mine!
HERMIA
Have condolement: he no more shall see my confront.
Lysander and myself will wing this place.
Before the fourth dimension I did Lysander come across
210 Seemed Athens as a paradise to me.
O, then, what graces in my dearest do dwell
That he hath turned a heaven unto a hell!
LYSANDER
Helen, to you lot our minds we will unfold.
Tomorrow dark when Phoebe doth behold
215 Her silver visage in the wat'ry glass,
Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass
(A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal),
Through Athens' gates take we devised to steal.
HERMIA
And in the woods where oft you and I
220 Upon faint primrose beds were wont to lie,
Emptying our bosoms of their counsel ⌜sweet,⌝
There my Lysander and myself shall come across
And thence from Athens turn away our eyes
To seek new friends and ⌜stranger companies.⌝
225 Cheerio, sweetness playfellow. Pray thou for us,
And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius.—

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23

A Midsummer Dark's Dream

Human activity 1. SC. 1

Keep word, Lysander. We must starve our sight
From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight.
LYSANDER
I volition, my Hermia. Hermia exits.
230 Helena, goodbye.
Equally y'all on him, Demetrius dote on you!
Lysander exits.
HELENA
How happy some o'er other some can exist!
Through Athens I am thought as fair equally she.
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not then.
235 He will not know what all but he do know.
And, as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,
So I, admiring of his qualities.
Things base and vile, property no quantity,
Love can transpose to grade and dignity.
240 Love looks not with the optics just with the mind;
And therefore is winged Cupid painted bullheaded.
Nor hath Love's listen of any judgment gustation.
Wings, and no optics, figure unheedy haste.
And therefore is Love said to be a child
245 Considering in choice he is so oft beguiled.
As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
So the boy Dear is perjured everywhere.
For, ere Demetrius looked on Hermia'due south eyne,
He hailed down oaths that he was only mine;
250 And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
So he dissolved, and show'rs of oaths did melt.
I will go tell him of fair Hermia'south flight.
Then to the forest will he tomorrow nighttime
Pursue her. And, for this intelligence
255 If I have thanks, it is a dear expense.
But herein hateful I to enrich my hurting,
To accept his sight thither and back once more.
She exits.

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Source: https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/a-midsummer-nights-dream/act-1-scene-1/

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