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A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Act I, Scene 1

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A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Act I, Scene 1

Scene 1

Athens. A room in the palace of Theseus.

Theseus, leader of Athens, has conquered the Amazons and captured Hippolyta, their queen. He tells her he is going to woo her and marry her in four days. He instructs his master of the revels to prepare celebrations. Egeus comes to Theseus to appeal for help. He brings along Hermia (his daughter) and two young men, Lysander and Demetrius. Both young men are in love with Hermia. Egeus wants Hermia to marry Demetrius, but Hermia is in love with Lysander. Egeus asks Theseus to force Hermia to make a choice: marry Demetrius, become a chaste nun, or be put to death. Theseus agrees and gives Hermia four days to make her decision. Alone, Hermia and Lysander agree to run away from Athens together. They plan to meet in the woods the following night. Their friend Helena, who is in love with Demetrius, arrives and they tell her their plan. Privately, Helena decides to curry favor with Demetrius by telling him the plan.
  1. Enter Theseus, Hippolyta,
  2. with others.

Theseus

1 - 6
  1. Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
    Apr 21, 2019 Miko
    wedding
  2. Draws on apace. Four happy days bring in
  3. Another moon; but O, methinks, how slow
  4. This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires,
    Jul 26, 2020 Miko
    prolongs
  5. Like to a step-dame, or a dowager,
  6. Long withering out a young man’s revenue.
    Mar 1, 2019 Miko
    The image here is of a step-dame (a stepmother) or a dowager (a widow who has use of her dead husband's estate) using up the estate before the son can inherit it.

Hippolyta

7 - 11
  1. Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;
  2. Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
    Apr 12, 2020 Miko
    There is considerable speculation about this statement that the wedding is in four days. The action of the play appears to take place over three days. The most common explanations are 1) parts of the play that appear to take place in one night are actually scattered over a longer period of time or 2) Shakespeare just got sloppy with the time references in the play.
  3. And then the moon, like to a silver bow
  4. New bent in heaven, shall behold the night
    Jul 26, 2020 Miko
    The Folios and Quartos have this word as “Now”. Some modern editions keep the word as “Now”, others change it to “New”.
    Apr 12, 2020 Miko
    The new moon will appear as a crescent.
  5. Of our solemnities.
    Mar 1, 2019 Miko
    ceremonies

Theseus

12 - 20
  1.                     Go, Philostrate,
    Apr 12, 2020 Miko
    Philostrate is mentioned in Chaucer's “The Canterbury Tales”, in “The Knight's Tale”. In that story, Philostrate is really Arcite, an exiled knight. Arcite returns to Athens in disguise, calling himself “Philostrate”, and gets a job working on Theseus' estate.
  2. Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments,
  3. Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth,
    Mar 1, 2019 Miko
    lively, cheerful
  4. Turn melancholy forth to funerals:
  5. The pale companion is not for our pomp.
    Mar 1, 2019 Miko
    melancholy or lacking in spirit
  6. Exit Philostrate.
    Jul 26, 2020 Miko
    The source texts do not actually have an explicit stage direction here.
  7. Hippolyta, I woo’d thee with my sword,
    Mar 1, 2019 Miko
    Theseus went to war with the Amazons and captured Hippolyta, their queen.
  8. And won thy love doing thee injuries;
  9. But I will wed thee in another key,
  10. With pomp, with triumph, and with reveling.
    Mar 1, 2019 Miko
    a public festivity, usually to celebrate a victory
  1. Enter Egeus and his daughter Hermia,
  2. Lysander, and Demetrius.
    Jul 3, 2021 Miko
    The First and Second Quartos have Helena enter here. That is obviously a mistake because she enters later in the scene. The Folios correct that mistake.

Egeus

21
  1. Happy be Theseus, our renowned Duke!
    Mar 1, 2019 Miko
    In Shakespeare's time the word “duke” could be used as a general term for a leader or a chief ruler. It did not necessarily mean the title of nobility that we know today. The word comes from the Latin word “dux” meaning “leader”.

Theseus

22
  1. Thanks, good Egeus. What’s the news with thee?

Egeus

23 - 46
  1. Full of vexation come I, with complaint
  2. Against my child, my daughter Hermia.
  3. Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,
  4. This man hath my consent to marry her.
  5. Stand forth, Lysander. And, my gracious Duke,
    Mar 4, 2019 Miko
    Both the First Quarto and the First Folio indent “Stand forth, Demetrius” and “Stand forth, Lysander” as if they were stage directions, not words spoken by Egeus. However, modern texts format them as part of the spoken lines. Without those words being spoken, the remaining words do not work as iambic pentameter, whereas the meter is correct with them spoken. However, some modern productions still treat those phrases as directions instead of spoken words.
  6. This man hath bewitch’d the bosom of my child.
    Mar 8, 2019 Miko
    The meter in this line doesn't quite work... “bewitch'd” has an extra syllable that disrupts the iambic pentameter. The Second Folio tried to fix this by removing “man”. Other scholars suggest contracting “man” and “hath” into a single syllable: man'th. Still other scholars trim down “bewitch'd” to just “witch'd”.
  7. Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,
  8. And interchang’d love-tokens with my child;
  9. Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung
  10. With faining voice verses of faining love,
    Mar 2, 2019 Miko
    “Faining voice” means to sing lovingly; “faining” love could mean sincere love, or it could mean "feigning" love, i.e. fake love.
  11. And stol’n the impression of her fantasy
  12. With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,
    Mar 1, 2019 Miko
    trinkets
    Apr 16, 2019 Miko
    Egeus says that Lysander has created a false sense of love in Hermia by wooing her with trinkets, sweets, and music.
  13. Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeatsmessengers
    Mar 1, 2019 Miko
    Knick-knacks, trinkets, possibly also with the connotation of trickery.
    Mar 1, 2019 Miko
    sweets such as candy or cakes
  14. Of strong prevailment in unhardened youth.
  15. With cunning hast thou filch’d my daughter’s heart,
  16. Turn’d her obedience (which is due to me)
  17. To stubborn harshness. And, my gracious Duke,
  18. Be it so she will not here before your Grace
  19. Consent to marry with Demetrius,
  20. I beg the ancient privilege of Athens:
  21. As she is mine, I may dispose of her;
    Jul 26, 2020 Miko
    Control, situate. At that time the phrase did not mean to throw something away.
  22. Which shall be either to this gentleman,
  23. Or to her death, according to our law
  24. Immediately provided in that case.
    Mar 2, 2019 Miko
    “Immediately” could mean “without delay” or it could mean “expressly”.
    Mar 1, 2019 Miko
    Egeus refers to laws in ancient Greece that gave a father power to have his children put to death. Those laws were enacted by Solon, a Greek statesman and lawmaker around 594 BC, many years after Theseus would have lived.

Theseus

47 - 53
  1. What say you, Hermia? Be advis’d, fair maid.
  2. To you your father should be as a god;
  3. One that compos’d your beauties; yea, and one
  4. To whom you are but as a form in wax,
  5. By him imprinted, and within his power,
  6. To leave the figure, or disfigure it.
  7. Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.

Hermia

54
  1. So is Lysander.

Theseus

55 - 57
  1.                 In himself he is;
  2. But in this kind, wanting your father’s voice,
    Jul 26, 2020 Miko
    in this matter
  3. The other must be held the worthier.

Hermia

58
  1. I would my father look’d but with my eyes.

Theseus

59
  1. Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.

Hermia

60 - 66
  1. I do entreat your Grace to pardon me.
  2. I know not by what power I am made bold,
  3. Nor how it may concern my modesty,
    Mar 8, 2019 Miko
    give an impression about her womanly behavior
  4. In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;
  5. But I beseech your Grace that I may know
  6. The worst that may befall me in this case,
  7. If I refuse to wed Demetrius.

Theseus

67 - 80
  1. Either to die the death, or to abjure
    Mar 2, 2019 Miko
    To be put to death through the law. Today we might say “executed”.
    Jul 16, 2020 Miko
    forswear
  2. Forever the society of men.
  3. Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires,
  4. Know of your youth, examine well your blood,
    Mar 2, 2019 Miko
    passion
  5. Whether (if you yield not to your father’s choice)
    Mar 4, 2019 Miko
    Pronounced with one syllable, like “whe'er”, to fit iambic pentameter.
  6. You can endure the livery of a nun,
    Mar 2, 2019 Miko
    distinctive dress
    Mar 2, 2019 Miko
    In this sense, a pagan nun devoted to a life of chastity.
  7. For aye to be in shady cloister mew’d,
    Mar 4, 2019 Miko
    Generally, a religious place of seclusion. In this case, a nun's convent.
    Mar 2, 2019 Miko
    confined
  8. To live a barren sister all your life,
    Jul 9, 2020 Miko
    having no children
  9. Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
    Mar 2, 2019 Miko
    “Moon” refers to Diana, the goddess of both the moon and of chastity. Theseus refers to Diana again at line 91.
  10. Thrice blessed they that master so their blood
  11. To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;
  12. But earthlier happy is the rose distill’d,
  13. Than that which withering on the virgin thorn
  14. Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.
    Mar 21, 2021 Miko
    blessed as a reward for a life of celibacy

Hermia

81 - 84
  1. So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,
  2. Ere I will yield my virgin patent up
    Mar 2, 2019 Miko
    a privilege granted by law
  3. Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke
  4. My soul consents not to give sovereignty.

Theseus

85 - 92
  1. Take time to pause, and by the next new moon
    Mar 19, 2021 Miko
    The term “new moon” can have two different meanings. One is when the moon is completely dark. The other is when the first crescent moon appears. Both senses were in use in Shakespeare's day. In the context of this play, the term implies a new crescent moon.
  2. The sealing-day betwixt my love and me
  3. For everlasting bond of fellowship
  4. Upon that day either prepare to die
  5. For disobedience to your father’s will,
  6. Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would,
  7. Or on Diana’s altar to protest
    Dec 21, 2020 Miko
    Diana was goddess of the moon and of chastity.
    Mar 2, 2019 Miko
    solemnly vow
  8. For aye austerity and single life.
    Mar 29, 2019 Miko
    forever
    Mar 20, 2021 Miko
    abstinence

Demetrius

93 - 94
  1. Relent, sweet Hermia, and, Lysander, yield
  2. Thy crazed title to my certain right.
    Mar 2, 2019 Miko
    invalid, false

Lysander

95 - 96
  1. You have her father’s love, Demetrius,
  2. Let me have Hermia’s; do you marry him.

Egeus

97 - 100
  1. Scornful Lysander, true, he hath my love;
  2. And what is mine, my love shall render him.
    Mar 19, 2021 Miko
    give
  3. And she is mine, and all my right of her
  4. I do estate unto Demetrius.
    Mar 2, 2019 Miko
    bestow

Lysander

101 - 112
  1. I am, my lord, as well deriv’d as he,
    Mar 3, 2019 Miko
    My family is as good as his.
  2. As well possess’d; my love is more than his;
    Mar 2, 2019 Miko
    as wealthy as
  3. My fortunes every way as fairly rank’d
  4. (If not with vantage) as Demetrius’;
    Jul 4, 2020 Miko
    if not better
  5. And (which is more than all these boasts can be)
  6. I am belov’d of beauteous Hermia.
  7. Why should not I then prosecute my right?
  8. Demetrius, I’ll avouch it to his head,
    Mar 3, 2019 Miko
    say directly to his face
  9. Made love to Nedar’s daughter, Helena,
    Jul 26, 2020 Miko
    No other mention of Nedar is made in the play.
  10. And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,
  11. Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,
    Jul 7, 2020 Miko
    excessive devotion
  12. Upon this spotted and inconstant man.
    Mar 3, 2019 Miko
    morally deficient or wicked

Theseus

113 - 128
  1. I must confess that I have heard so much,
  2. And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof;
  3. But, being over-full of self-affairs,
  4. My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come,
  5. And come, Egeus, you shall go with me;
  6. I have some private schooling for you both.
  7. For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself
    Mar 2, 2019 Miko
    mentally prepare
  8. To fit your fancies to your father’s will;
  9. Or else the law of Athens yields you up
  10. (Which by no means we may extenuate)
    Mar 10, 2019 Miko
    lessen
  11. To death, or to a vow of single life.
  12. Come, my Hippolyta; what cheer, my love?
    Jul 26, 2020 Miko
    Theseus might be reacting to an expression by Hippolyta of disapproval regarding Theseus' ruling. In some productions, Hippolyta makes a gesture indicating aggravation.
  13. Demetrius and Egeus, go along;
  14. I must employ you in some business
  15. Against our nuptial, and confer with you
  16. Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.
    Jul 4, 2020 Miko
    It is never explained what business Theseus has that involves Demetrius and Egeus. Presumably this is just a shallow plot device to get them offstage.

Egeus

129
  1. With duty and desire we follow you.
  1. Exeunt. Manent Lysander and Hermia.
    Apr 14, 2019 Miko
    Lysander and Hermia remain on stage.

Lysander

130 - 131
  1. How now, my love? Why is your cheek so pale?
  2. How chance the roses there do fade so fast?

Hermia

132 - 133
  1. Belike for want of rain; which I could well
  2. Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.
    Mar 3, 2019 Miko
    allow, or pour

Lysander

134 - 137
  1. Ay me! For aught that I could ever read,
    Jul 26, 2020 Miko
    The First Quarto has the words “Eigh me”. The Folios do not have these words at all.
  2. Could ever hear by tale or history,
  3. The course of true love never did run smooth;
  4. But either it was different in blood

Hermia

138
  1. O cross! Too high to be enthrall’d to love.
    Jul 4, 2020 Miko
    Some modern editions change this word to “low”. The First Quarto and First Folio have “loue” and the Second Folio has “love”. The justification for the change is that “low” is in opposition to “high”.
    Jul 4, 2020 Miko
    Hermia is lamenting the idea that someone could be of too high a social station to love who they want.

Lysander

139
  1. Or else misgraffed in respect of years
    Mar 3, 2019 Miko
    Mismatched. This is probably a variant of “misgrafted”, meaning poorly matched like two plants being grafted together.

Hermia

140
  1. O spite! Too old to be engag’d to young.

Lysander

141
  1. Or else it stood upon the choice of friends
    Jul 26, 2020 Miko
    The Folios have the word “merit” here. The First Quarto has “friends”.

Hermia

142
  1. O hell, to choose love by another’s eyes!

Lysander

143 - 151
  1. Or if there were a sympathy in choice,
    Jul 26, 2020 Miko
    agreement
  2. War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,
  3. Making it momentany as a sound,
    Mar 3, 2019 Miko
    Momentary. The First Quarto says “momentany”; the First Folio says “momentarie”.
  4. Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,
  5. Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
    Mar 3, 2019 Miko
    Black. From the word “coal”.
  6. That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth;
    Mar 3, 2019 Miko
    a sudden fit of temper
  7. And ere a man hath power to say Behold!”
    Jul 30, 2020 Miko
    Before a man can say “Behold!”. Today we might say something like “before you can say Jack Robinson”.
  8. The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
  9. So quick bright things come to confusion.
    Jul 26, 2020 Miko
    destruction

Hermia

152 - 157
  1. If then true lovers have been ever cross’d,
    Aug 13, 2021 Miko
    Thwarted. The word is used in a similar way in “Romeo and Juliet” in the phrase “star cross'd lovers”.
  2. It stands as an edict in destiny.
    Jul 26, 2020 Miko
    The First Quarto has a comma in this sentence: “edict, in destiny”.
  3. Then let us teach our trial patience,
    Jul 26, 2020 Miko
    be patient in our ordeal
  4. Because it is a customary cross,
  5. As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,
  6. Wishes and tears, poor fancy’s followers.
    Mar 3, 2019 Miko
    love's

Lysander

158 - 170
  1. A good persuasion; therefore hear me, Hermia:
    Jul 27, 2020 Miko
    In this sense, “persuasion” means argument. Today we might say “that's a good point.”
  2. I have a widow aunt, a dowager,
  3. Of great revenue, and she hath no child.
  4. From Athens is her house remote seven leagues;
    Jul 9, 2020 Miko
    About 21 miles or 34 kilometers. Curiously, the league was never commonly used as a measurement in England except in poetry or rhetoric.
  5. And she respects me as her only son.
  6. There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;
  7. And to that place the sharp Athenian law
  8. Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me, then
  9. Steal forth thy father’s house tomorrow night;
    Mar 3, 2019 Miko
    sneak out of
  10. And in the wood, a league without the town
    Jul 27, 2020 Miko
    Notice the similarity between their plans and those of Pyramus and Thisby in Act V.
  11. (Where I did meet thee once with Helena
  12. To do observance to a morn of May),
    Mar 3, 2019 Miko
    May Day (the first of May). It was custom to celebrate May Day by going to the woods before sunrise and collecting flowers and branches. After dawn, they would return to their homes and adorn their doors and windows with the branches and flowers.

    Later in the play, in Act IV, scene 1, Theseus mentions the May Day celebration when he says “No doubt they rose up early to observe the rite of May”.

  13. There will I stay for thee.

Hermia

171 - 181
  1.                             My good Lysander,
  2. I swear to thee, by Cupid’s strongest bow,
  3. By his best arrow with the golden head,
    Mar 3, 2019 Miko
    In Greek mythology, Cupid shot arrows tipped with gold to make people fall in love, and tipped with lead to make them dislike each other.
  4. By the simplicity of Venus’ doves,
    Mar 3, 2019 Miko
    purity
    Mar 3, 2019 Miko
    In Greek mythology, Venus' chariot was pulled by doves.
  5. By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,
  6. And by that fire which burn’d the Carthage queen
    Mar 3, 2019 Miko
    Dido, the Queen of Carthage, burned herself to death when she was abandoned by her love, Aeneus (the “false Troyan”). It is an anachronism for Hermia to talk about Dido, who lived after the time of Theseus.
  7. When the false Troyan under sail was seen,
  8. By all the vows that ever men have broke
  9. (In number more than ever women spoke),
    Mar 22, 2021 Miko
    Hermia is saying that men break their vows much more than women do.
  10. In that same place thou hast appointed me
  11. Tomorrow truly will I meet with thee.

Lysander

182
  1. Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena.
  1. Enter Helena.

Hermia

183
  1. God speed fair Helena! Whither away?

Helena

184 - 196
  1. Call you me fair? That fair again unsay.
  2. Demetrius loves your fair, O happy fair!
  3. Your eyes are lodestars, and your tongue’s sweet air
    Mar 3, 2019 Miko
    stars used for navigation such as the North Star
    Mar 2, 2019 Miko
    a pleasing melody
  4. More tuneable than lark to shepherd’s ear
    Mar 3, 2019 Miko
    melodious
  5. When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
    Jul 27, 2020 Miko
    This is a popular passage for setting to music. See, for example, youtu.be/-IPXvB1E2Iw.
  6. Sickness is catching; O, were favor so,
  7. Yours I'd catch, fair Hermia, ere I go;
    Jul 27, 2020 Miko
    The First Quarto and the First Folio have just the word “I”. The Second Folio has “Ide”. We've chosen to go with “I'd” because it most clearly represents that Helena intends to say “I would”.
    Jul 17, 2020 Miko
    If Hermia's attractiveness to Demetrius were contagious like sickness, Helena would want to catch it.
  8. My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,
  9. My tongue should catch your tongue’s sweet melody.
    Mar 21, 2021 Miko
    imitate
  10. Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,
    Mar 3, 2019 Miko
    excepted
  11. The rest I’ll give to be to you translated.
    Jul 16, 2020 Miko
    like you or changed into you
  12. O, teach me how you look, and with what art
  13. You sway the motion of Demetrius’ heart.

Hermia

197
  1. I frown upon him; yet he loves me still.

Helena

198
  1. O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!

Hermia

199
  1. I give him curses; yet he gives me love.

Helena

200
  1. O that my prayers could such affection move!

Hermia

201
  1. The more I hate, the more he follows me.

Helena

202
  1. The more I love, the more he hateth me.

Hermia

203
  1. His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.

Helena

204
  1. None but your beauty; would that fault were mine!

Hermia

205 - 210
  1. Take comfort; he no more shall see my face;
  2. Lysander and myself will fly this place.
  3. Before the time I did Lysander see,
  4. Seem’d Athens as a paradise to me;
  5. O then, what graces in my love do dwell,
  6. That he hath turn’d a heaven unto a hell!
    Apr 25, 2019 Miko
    into

Lysander

211 - 216
  1. Helen, to you our minds we will unfold:
  2. Tomorrow night, when Phoebe doth behold
    Mar 3, 2019 Miko
    another name for Diana, the goddess of the moon
  3. Her silver visage in the wat’ry glass,
    Mar 3, 2019 Miko
    A body of water, such as a lake or pond, which reflects the moonlight.
  4. Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass
    Aug 13, 2021 Miko
    dew
  5. (A time that lovers’ flights doth still conceal),
    Jul 27, 2020 Miko
    always
  6. Through Athens gates have we devis’d to steal.

Hermia

217 - 226
  1. And in the wood, where often you and I
  2. Upon faint primrose beds were wont to lie,
    Jul 27, 2020 Miko
    This word probably refers to the flowers' color, not their aroma.
    Jul 27, 2020 Miko
    accustomed
  3. Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,
  4. There my Lysander and myself shall meet;
  5. And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,
  6. To seek new friends and strange companions.
    Mar 3, 2019 Miko
    Some modern texts change this phrase to “stranger companies”.
  7. Farewell, sweet playfellow, pray thou for us;
  8. And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!
  9. Keep word, Lysander; we must starve our sight
  10. From lovers’ food till morrow deep midnight.

Lysander

227 - 229
  1. I will, my Hermia.
  2. Exit Hermia.
  3.                    Helena, adieu:
  4. As you on him, Demetrius dote on you!
  1. Exit Lysander.

Helena

230 - 255
  1. How happy some, or othersome can be!
    Jul 27, 2020 Miko
    some others
    Jul 13, 2021 Miko
    In the First Quarto this character is an exclamation point. In the First Folio it is a question mark.
  2. Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
  3. But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;
  4. He will not know what all but he do know;
  5. And as he errs, doting on Hermia’s eyes,
  6. So I, admiring of his qualities.
  7. Things base and vile, holding no quantity,
  8. Love can transpose to form and dignity.
  9. Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind;
  10. And therefore is wing’d Cupid painted blind.
    Mar 4, 2019 Miko
    Cupid was often pictured as blindfolded.
  11. Nor hath Love’s mind of any judgment taste;
  12. Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste;
    Apr 25, 2019 Miko
    unadvised, poorly thought out
  13. And therefore is Love said to be a child,
  14. Because in choice he is so oft beguil’d.
  15. As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
    Apr 25, 2019 Miko
    mischievous
    Jul 8, 2021 Miko
    in jest
  16. So the boy Love is perjur’d every where;
    Jul 27, 2020 Miko
    tells lies
  17. For ere Demetrius look’d on Hermia’s eyne,
    Mar 4, 2019 Miko
    eyes
  18. He hail’d down oaths that he was only mine;
  19. And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
  20. So he dissolv’d, and show’rs of oaths did melt.
    Jul 8, 2021 Miko
    His oaths of love for Helena rained down like a hail storm, but when he fell in love with Hermia, that love was like heat that melted the hail.
  21. I will go tell him of fair Hermia’s flight;
  22. Then to the wood will he tomorrow night
  23. Pursue her; and for this intelligence
  24. If I have thanks, it is a dear expense.
  25. But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
  26. To have his sight thither and back again.
  1. Exit.
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