Midsummer quotes

To you your father should
be as a God

One that composed your
beauties, yea and one

To whom you are but as a
form in wax,

By him imprinted, and
within his power

To leave the figure or
disfigure it. (1.1.47-51)

Either to die the death,
or to abjure

Forever the society of
men.

Therefore, fair Hermia,
question your desires.

Know of your youth,
examine well your blood,

Whether, if you yield not
to your father’s choice,

You can endure the livery
of a nun,

For aye to be in shady
cloister mewed,

To live a barren sister
all your life,

Chanting faint hymns to
the cold fruitless moon.

Thrice blessed they that
master so their blood

To undergo such maiden
pilgrimage;

But earthlier happy is
the rose distilled

Than that which,
withering on the virgin thorn,

Grows, lives, and dies in
single blessedness. (1.1.65-78)

Hippolyta, I wooed thee
with my sword

And won thy love doing
thee injuries;

But I will wed thee in
another key,

With pomp, with triumph,
and with reveling.

I will go tell him of
fair Hermia’s flight.

Then to the wood will he tomorrow night

Pursue her, and for this intelligence

If I have thanks it is a dear expense.

But herein mean I to enrich my pain,

To have his sight hither and back again.

And in the wood, where
often you and I

Upon faint primrose beds
were wont to lie,

Emptying our bosoms of
their counsel sweet,

There my Lysander and
myself shall meet,

And thence from Athens
turn away our eyes

To seek new friends and
stranger companies.

Farewell, sweet
playfellow. Pray thou for us,

And good luck grant thee
thy Demetrius!

“You do impeach your modesty too much, / To leave
the city and commit yourself/Into the hands of one that loves you not;/ To
trust the opportunity of night,/ And the ill counsel of a desert place,/With
the rich worth of your virginity” (2.1.214-19)

“I’ll follow thee, and make a heaven from hell,
/To die upon the hand I love so well” (2.1.243-44)

“I am your spaniel, and, Demetrius, /The more
you beat me I will fawn on you./Use me but as your spaniel: spurn me, strike
me, / Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,/Unworthy as I am, to follow you/
What worser place can I beg in your love--/And yet a place of high respect with
me--/Than to be used as you use your dog?” (2.1.202-210)

“I’ll run from thee, and hide me in the
brakes,/And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts” (2.1.227-28)

“The wildest hath not such as heart as you.” (2.1.229)

An you should do it too
terribly you would fright the Duchess and the ladies that they would shriek,
and that were enough to hang us all.

I grant you friends, if
you should fright the ladies out of their wits they would have no more
discretion but to hang us. (1.2.61-68 my italics)

half his face must be
seen through the lion's neck; and he himself must speak through, saying thus,
or to the same defect: "Ladies," or "Fair ladies, I would wish
you," or "I would request you," or "I would entreat you,
not to fear, not to tremble: my life for yours! If you think I come hither as a
lion, it were pity of my life. No, I am
no such thing; I am a man, as other men are": and there, indeed,
let him name his name, and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner. (3.1.35-44; my emphasis)

Theseus
wonders "if the lion be to speak

"If we imagine no
worse of them than they of themselves, they may pass for excellent men"
(209-11).

"Here come two noble
beasts in, a man and a lion" (211-13)

"A mote will turn the
balance, which Pyramus, which Thisbe, is the better: he for a man, God warrant
us; she for a woman, God bless us!" (306-08).

No die, but an ace for
him; for he is but one.

Less than an ace, man;
for he is dead, he is nothing.
(5.1.296-97)

You can play no part but; for Pyramus is a
sweet-faced man, a proper man as one shall see in a summer’s day; a most lovely
gentleman-like man. Therefore you must needs play Pyramus. (1.2.77-80)

[H]e hath simply the best wit of any
handicraft man in Athens.

Yea, and the best person
too, and he is a very paramour for a sweet voice.

You must say “paragon.” A
paramour is, God bless us, a thing of naught. (4.2.9-14)

I would my father looked
but with my eyes.

Rather your eyes must
with his judgement look.(1.1.56-57)

The best in this kind are but shadows, and the
worst are no worse if imagination amend them. (5.1.208-9).