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A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 2, Scene 2

William Shakespeare
Every note, for your class

The story so far

Earlier in the play

Hermia faces death or lifelong chastity unless she marries Demetrius. She and Lysander plan to flee Athens through the wood, and tell Helena. Hoping to see Demetrius, Helena decides to tell him. Quince’s players arrange to rehearse in the wood for Theseus’s wedding.

In the last scene: Act 2, Scene 1

Titania refuses Oberon the boy she is raising. Oberon obtains a flower whose juice makes sleepers love the first creature they see on waking; he plans to use it on her. After overhearing Demetrius reject Helena, he orders Puck to charm the Athenian youth so he loves her, identifying him by his clothes.

SCENE II. Another part of the wood

Enter Titania with her Train.
TITANIA
Come, now a roundelrarea circular dance, often accompanied by singing. and a fairy song;Then for the third part of a minute, hence;Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds;Some war with reremiceold wordsa bat. for their leathern wings,To make my small elves coats; and some keep backThe clamorous owl, that nightly hoots and wondersAt our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;Then to your offices, and let me rest.
Fairies sing.
FIRST FAIRY
You spotted snakes with double tongue,Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;Newts and blind-worms do no wrong,Come not near our Fairy Queen:
CHORUS
PhilomelnamePhilomel, the nightingale, named after the mythological Philomela who was transformed into that bird., with melody,Sing in our sweet lullaby:Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby.Never harm, nor spell, nor charm,Come our lovely lady nigh;So good night, with lullaby.
FIRST FAIRY
Weaving spiders, come not here;Hence, you long-legg’d spinners, hence.Beetles black, approach not near;Worm nor snail do no offence.
CHORUS
Philomel with melody, &c.
SECOND FAIRY
Hence away! Now all is well.One aloof stand sentinel.
Exeuntforeign phrasea stage direction indicating that two or more characters leave the stage. Fairies. Titania sleeps.
Enter Oberon.
OBERON
What thou seest when thou dost wake,
Squeezes the flower on Titania’s eyelids.
OBERON
Do it for thy true love take;Love and languish for his sake.Be it ouncemeaning changedA large spotted wild cat, especially a lynx or snow leopard., or cat, or bear,Pard, or boar with bristled hair,In thy eye that shall appearWhen thou wak’st, it is thy dear.Wake when some vile thing is near.
Exit.
Enter Lysander and Hermia.
LYSANDER
Fair love, you faint with wand’ring in the wood.And, to speak troth, I have forgot our way.We’ll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,And tarry for the comfort of the day.
HERMIA
Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed,For I upon this bank will rest my head.
LYSANDER
One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;One heart, one bed, two bosoms, and one troth.
HERMIA
Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear,Lie further off yet, do not lie so near.
LYSANDER
O take the sense, sweet, of my innocence!Love takes the meaning in love’s conference.I mean that my heart unto yours is knit,So that but one heart we can make of it:Two bosoms interchainèdrareTo link or bind together like the links of a chain. with an oath,So then two bosoms and a single troth.Then by your side no bed-room me deny;For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.
HERMIA
Lysander riddles very prettily.Now much beshrew my manners and my pride,If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied!But, gentle friend, for love and courtesyLie further off, in human modesty,Such separation as may well be saidBecomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid,So far be distant; and good night, sweet friend:Thy love ne’er alter till thy sweet life end!
LYSANDER
Amen, amen, to that fair prayer say I;And then end life when I end loyalty!Here is my bed. Sleep give thee all his rest!
HERMIA
With half that wish the wisher’s eyes be pressed!
They sleep.
Enter Puck.
PUCK
Through the forest have I gone,But Athenian found I none,On whose eyes I might approveThis flower’s force in stirring love.Night and silence! Who is here?Weeds of Athens he doth wear:This is he, my master said,Despisèd the Athenian maid;And here the maiden, sleeping sound,On the dank and dirty ground.Pretty soul, she durst not lieNear this lack-loverarea person who lacks a lover or is unloved., this kill-courtesyrarea discourteous person who spoils sociable pleasure..Churl, upon thy eyes I throwAll the power this charm doth owe;When thou wak’st let love forbidSleep his seat on thy eyelid.So awake when I am gone;For I must now to Oberon.
Exit.
Enter Demetrius and Helena, running.
HELENA
Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.
DEMETRIUS
I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus.
HELENA
O, wilt thou darkling leave me? Do not so.
DEMETRIUS
Stay, on thy peril; I alone will go.
Exit Demetrius.
HELENA
O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.Happy is Hermia, wheresoe’er she lies,For she hath blessèd and attractive eyes.How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears.If so, my eyes are oftener wash’d than hers.No, no, I am as ugly as a bear,For beasts that meet me run away for fear:Therefore no marvel though DemetriusDo, as a monster, fly my presence thus.What wicked and dissembling glass of mineMade me compare with Hermia’s sphery eyne?But who is here? Lysander, on the ground!Dead or asleep? I see no blood, no wound.Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake.
LYSANDER
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 wordIs 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.
LYSANDER
Content with Hermia? No, I do repentThe 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.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’erlookLove’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,That I did never, no, nor never canDeserve 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,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.
LYSANDER
She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there,And never mayst thou come Lysander near!For, as a surfeit of the sweetest thingsThe deepest loathing to the stomach brings;Or as the heresies that men do leaveAre hated most of those they did deceive;So thou, my surfeit and my heresy,Of all be hated, but the most of me!And, all my powers, address your love and mightTo honour Helen, and to be her knight!
Exit.
HERMIA
Help me, Lysander, help me! Do thy bestTo pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!Ay me, for pity! What a dream was here!Lysander, look how I do quake with fear.Methought a serpent eat my heart away,And you sat smiling at his cruel prey.Lysander! What, removed? Lysander! lord!What, out of hearing? Gone? No sound, no word?Alack, where are you? Speak, and if you hear;Speak, of all lovesold wordsFor love’s sake; as an earnest entreaty.! I swoon almost with fear.No? Then I well perceive you are not nigh.Either death or you I’ll find immediately.
Exit.

Characters

Speaking

  • 7 speeches
  • 5 speeches
  • 5 speeches
  • 2 speeches
  • 2 speeches
  • First Fairy2 speeches

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Themes

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Questions on this scene

  • Reading

    What does Oberon squeeze onto Titania’s eyelids?

Locations

  • The wood outside Athens?Scene

    The lovers flee into this wood, the craftsmen rehearse, and the fairies' interventions produce the central confusions. Theseus's hunting party discovers the sleeping lovers here. The wood has no securely identifiable geographical site.

    Set here · 17 quotes in this scene

Also mentioned

  • Titania's bower?10 quotes in this scene
  • Athens3 quotes in this scene