Page 2658 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

For beasts that meet me run away for fear:
Therefore no marvel though Demetrius [95]
Do, as a monster, fly my presence thus.
What wicked and dissembling glass of mine
Made me compare with Hermia’s sphery eyne?
But who is here? Lysander, on the ground?
Dead, or asleep? I see no blood, no wound. [100]
Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake!

LY SANDER

(waking)
And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake!
Transparent Helena! Nature shows art,
That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.
Where is Demetrius? O how fit a word [105]
Is that vile name to perish on my sword!

HELENA

Do not say so, Lysander, say not so.
What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though?
Yet Hermia still loves you; then be content.

LY SANDER

Content with Hermia? No. I do repent [110]
The tedious minutes I with her have spent.
Not Hermia, but Helena I love:
Who will not change a raven for a dove?
The will of man is by his reason sway’d,
And reason says you are the worthier maid. [115]
Things growing are not ripe until their season:
So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason;
And, touching now the point of human skill,
Reason becomes the marshal to my will,
And leads me to your eyes, where I o’erlook [120]
Love’s stories, written in love’s richest book.

HELENA

Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born?
When at your hands did I deserve this scorn?
Is’t not enough, is’t not enough, young man,