Page 2659 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

That I did never, no, nor never can [125]
Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius’ eye,
But you must flout my insufficiency?
Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do,
In such disdainful manner me to woo.
But fare you well; perforce I must confess [130]
I thought you lord of more true gentleness.
O that a lady, of one man refus’d,
Should of another therefore be abus’d!

Exit.

LY SANDER

She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there,
And never mayst thou come Lysander near! [135]
For, as a surfeit of the sweetest things
The deepest loathing to the stomach brings;
Or as the heresies that men do leave
Are hated most of those they did deceive;
So thou, my surfeit and my heresy, [140]
Of all be hated, but the most of me!
And, all my powers, address your love and might
To honour Helen, and to be her knight!

Exit.

HERMIA

(starting)
Help me, Lysander, help me! Do thy best
To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast! [145]
Ay me, for pity! What a dream was here!
Lysander, look how I do quake with fear.
Methought a serpent ate my heart away,
And you sat smiling at his cruel prey.
Lysander! What, remov’d? Lysander! lord! [150]
What, out of hearing? Gone? No sound, no word?
Alack, where are you? Speak, and if you hear;
Speak, of all loves! I swoon almost with fear.
No? Then I well perceive you are not nigh.
Either death or you I’ll find immediately. [155]
Exit.
(Titania remains lying asleep.)