Chapter: ACT I. SCENE I.
Athens. The palace of THESEUS

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and ATTENDANTS

  THESEUS. Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
    Draws on apace; four happy days bring in
    Another moon; but, O, methinks, how slow
    This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires,
    Like to a step-dame or a dowager,
    Long withering out a young man's revenue.
  HIPPOLYTA. Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;
    Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
    And then the moon, like to a silver bow
    New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night
    Of our solemnities.
  THESEUS. Go, Philostrate,
    Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;
    Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;
    Turn melancholy forth to funerals;
    The pale companion is not for our pomp.     Exit PHILOSTRATE
    Hippolyta, I woo'd 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 revelling.

          Enter EGEUS, and his daughter HERMIA, LYSANDER,
                           and DEMETRIUS

  EGEUS. Happy be Theseus, our renowned Duke!
  THESEUS. Thanks, good Egeus; what's the news with thee?
  EGEUS. Full of vexation come I, with complaint
    Against my child, my daughter Hermia.
    Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,
    This man hath my consent to marry her.
    Stand forth, Lysander. And, my gracious Duke,
    This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child.
    Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,
    And interchang'd love-tokens with my child;
    Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,
    With feigning voice, verses of feigning love,
    And stol'n the impression of her fantasy
    With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,
    Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats- messengers
    Of strong prevailment in unhardened youth;
    With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart;
    Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,
    To stubborn harshness. And, my gracious Duke,
    Be it so she will not here before your Grace
    Consent to marry with Demetrius,
    I beg the ancient privilege of Athens:
    As she is mine I may dispose of her;
    Which shall be either to this gentleman
    Or to her death, according to our law
    Immediately provided in that case.
  THESEUS. What say you, Hermia? Be advis'd, fair maid.
    To you your father should be as a god;
    One that compos'd 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.
    Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.
  HERMIA. So is Lysander.
  THESEUS. In himself he is;
    But, in this kind, wanting your father's voice,
    The other must be held the worthier.
  HERMIA. I would my father look'd but with my eyes.
  THESEUS. Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.
  HERMIA. I do entreat your Grace to pardon me.
    I know not by what power I am made bold,
    Nor how it may concern my modesty
    In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;
    But I beseech your Grace that I may know
    The worst that may befall me in this case,
    If I refuse to wed Demetrius.
  THESEUS. Either to die the death, or to abjure
    For ever 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 shady cloister mew'd,
    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 distill'd
    Than that which withering on the virgin thorn
    Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness.
  HERMIA. So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,
    Ere I will yield my virgin patent up
    Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke
    My soul consents not to give sovereignty.
  THESEUS. Take time to pause; and by the next new moon-
    The sealing-day betwixt my love and me
    For everlasting bond of fellowship-
    Upon that day either prepare to die
    For disobedience to your father's will,
    Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would,
    Or on Diana's altar to protest
    For aye austerity and single life.
  DEMETRIUS. Relent, sweet Hermia; and, Lysander, yield
    Thy crazed title to my certain right.
  LYSANDER. You have her father's love, Demetrius;
    Let me have Hermia's; do you marry him.
  EGEUS. Scornful Lysander, true, he hath my love;
    And what is mine my love shall render him;
    And she is mine; and all my right of her
    I do estate unto Demetrius.
  LYSANDER. I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he,
    As well possess'd; my love is more than his;
    My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd,
    If not with vantage, as Demetrius';
    And, which is more than all these boasts can be,
    I am belov'd of beauteous Hermia.
    Why should not I then prosecute my right?
    Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,
    Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,
    And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,
    Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,
    Upon this spotted and inconstant man.
  THESEUS. I must confess that I have heard so much,
    And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof;
    But, being over-full of self-affairs,
    My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come;
    And come, Egeus; you shall go with me;
    I have some private schooling for you both.
    For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself
    To fit your fancies to your father's will,
    Or else the law of Athens yields you up-
    Which by no means we may extenuate-
    To death, or to a vow of single life.
    Come, my Hippolyta; what cheer, my love?
    Demetrius, and Egeus, go along;
    I must employ you in some business
    Against our nuptial, and confer with you
    Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.
  EGEUS. With duty and desire we follow you.
                              Exeunt all but LYSANDER and HERMIA
  LYSANDER. How now, my love! Why is your cheek so pale?
    How chance the roses there do fade so fast?
  HERMIA. Belike for want of rain, which I could well
    Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.
  LYSANDER. Ay me! for aught that I could ever read,
    Could ever hear by tale or history,
    The course of true love never did run smooth;
    But either it was different in blood-
  HERMIA. O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low.
  LYSANDER. Or else misgraffed in respect of years-
  HERMIA. O spite! too old to be engag'd to young.
  LYSANDER. Or else it stood upon the choice of friends-
  HERMIA. O hell! to choose love by another's eyes.
  LYSANDER. Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
    War, death, or sickness, did lay siege to it,
    Making it momentary as a sound,
    Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,
    Brief as the lightning in the collied night
    That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
    And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!'
    The jaws of darkness do devour it up;
    So quick bright things come to confusion.
  HERMIA. If then true lovers have ever cross'd,
    It stands as an edict in destiny.
    Then let us teach our trial patience,
    Because it is a customary cross,
    As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,
    Wishes and tears, poor Fancy's followers.
  LYSANDER. A good persuasion; therefore, hear me, Hermia.
    I have a widow aunt, a dowager
    Of great revenue, and she hath no child-
    From Athens is her house remote seven leagues-
    And she respects me as her only son.
    There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;
    And to that place the sharp Athenian law
    Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then,
    Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night;
    And in the wood, a league without the town,
    Where I did meet thee once with Helena
    To do observance to a morn of May,
    There will I stay for thee.
  HERMIA. My good Lysander!
    I swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow,
    By his best arrow, with the golden head,
    By the simplicity of Venus' doves,
    By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,
    And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage Queen,
    When the false Troyan under sail was seen,
    By all the vows that ever men have broke,
    In number more than ever women spoke,
    In that same place thou hast appointed me,
    To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.
  LYSANDER. Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena.

                         Enter HELENA

  HERMIA. God speed fair Helena! Whither away?
  HELENA. Call you me fair? That fair again unsay.
    Demetrius loves your fair. O happy fair!
    Your eyes are lode-stars and your tongue's sweet air
    More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,
    When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
    Sickness is catching; O, were favour so,
    Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go!
    My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,
    My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.
    Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,
    The rest I'd give to be to you translated.
    O, teach me how you look, and with what art
    You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart!
  HERMIA. I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.
  HELENA. O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!
  HERMIA. I give him curses, yet he gives me love.
  HELENA. O that my prayers could such affection move!
  HERMIA. The more I hate, the more he follows me.
  HELENA. The more I love, the more he hateth me.
  HERMIA. His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.
  HELENA. None, but your beauty; would that fault were mine!
  HERMIA. Take comfort: he no more shall see my face;
    Lysander and myself will fly this place.
    Before the time I did Lysander see,
    Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me.
    O, then, what graces in my love do dwell,
    That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell!
  LYSANDER. Helen, to you our minds we will unfold:
    To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold
    Her silver visage in the wat'ry glass,
    Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,
    A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal,
    Through Athens' gates have we devis'd to steal.
  HERMIA. 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!
    Keep word, Lysander; we must starve our sight
    From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight.
  LYSANDER. I will, my Hermia. [Exit HERMIA] Helena, adieu;
    As you on him, Demetrius dote on you.                   Exit
  HELENA. How happy some o'er other some can be!
    Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
    But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;
    He will not know what all but he do know.
    And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,
    So I, admiring of his qualities.
    Things base and vile, holding no quantity,
    Love can transpose to form and dignity.
    Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
    And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.
    Nor hath Love's mind of any judgment taste;
    Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste;
    And therefore is Love said to be a child,
    Because in choice he is so oft beguil'd.
    As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
    So the boy Love is perjur'd everywhere;
    For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,
    He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;
    And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
    So he dissolv'd, and show'rs of oaths did melt.
    I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight;
    Then to the wood will he to-morrow 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 thither and back again.               Exit

 Theseus impatiently awaits his wedding to Hippolyta, which will take place in four days' time. He tells Philostrate to get the young people of Athens in a mood for a celebration. Egeus enters with his daughter Hermia, and Lysander and Demetrius. He complains to the Duke that he has given consent to Demetrius's request to marry Hermia, but Lysander has made it his business to win Hermia's love, and has succeeded. Egeus does not believe Lysander is genuine in his protestations of love. He tells the Duke that according to Athenian law, he has a right to do with his daughter whatever he pleases. If she will not marry Demetrius, he will condemn her to death. Theseus attempts to persuade Hermia to accept her father's wishes. But she is in love with Lysander and cannot change her feelings. She appeals to the Duke to tell her the worst that may happen to her if she refuses Demetrius. Theseus replies that she must either die or become a nun. Those are her only choices. Hermia says she will choose the latter option rather than marry a man she does not want. Theseus gives her until his own wedding to think it over, at which time she must make her choice. Demetrius begs Hermia to relent, while Lysander makes a mocking remark aimed at Demetrius. Egeus intervenes and remonstrates with Lysander, but Lysander does not back down. He says he is in every way Demetrius's equal, and what is more, Hermia loves him. He also reveals that in the past, Demetrius sought Helena's love, and now Helena dotes on him. Theseus says he has some business to discuss with Egeus and Demetrius, and he again warns Hermia to be ready soon to make up her mind. They all exit, leaving Lysander alone with Hermia. The two lovers commiserate with each other over their difficult position. Lysander comes up with a plan. He has a wealthy aunt who lives some distance from Athens, outside the jurisdiction of Athenian law. There they could marry. He tells Hermia to meet him in the wood outside of Athens the following night. Hermia promises to be there. Helena enters. She makes it clear that she is envious of Hermia, since Hermia has Demetrius's love. Hermia confesses her frustration, since the more she tries to push Demetrius away, the more he loves her. She and Lysander confide in Helena about their plan to meet in the wood. After Hermia and Lysander leave, Helena reflects on the fickle ways of love, and then decides to inform Demetrius of the other couple's plan, so that he will pursue Hermia into the wood. He might even thank Helena for the information she gives him.

