| Act 1 Scene 1After (Hippolyta)Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;Four nights will quickly dream away the time; | (Enter)Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke! |
| Act 1 Scene 1After (Theseus)Thanks, good Egeus: what’s the news with thee? | Full of vexation come I, with complaintAgainst my child, my daughter Hermia.Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,This man hath my consent to marry her.Stand forth, Lysander:This man hath bewitch’d the bosom of my child;Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,And interchanged love-tokens with my child: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 graceConsent 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 gentlemanOr to her death, according to our lawImmediately provided in that case. |
| Act 1 Scene 1After (Lysander)You have her mother’s love, Demetrius;Let me have Hermia’s: do you marry her. | 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 herI do estate unto Demetrius. |
| Act 1 Scene 1After (Theseus)Demetrius and Egeus, go along:I must employ you in some businessAgainst our nuptial and confer with youOf something nearly that concerns yourselves. | With duty and desire we follow you.(Exit) |
| Act 4 Scene 1After (Theseus)Each under each. A cry more tuneableWas never holla’d to, nor cheer’d with horn,In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly:Judge when you hear. But, soft! what nymphs are these? | My lord, this is my daughter here asleep;And this, Lysander; this Demetrius is;This Helena, old Nedar’s Helena:I wonder of their being here together. |
| Act 4 Scene 1After (Theseus)No doubt they rose up early to observeThe rite of May, and hearing our intent,Came here in grace our solemnity.But speak, Egeus; is not this the dayThat Hermia should give answer of her choice? | It is, my lord. |
| Act 4 Scene 1After (Lysander)And now do I bethink me, so it is,–I came with Hermia hither: our intentWas to be gone from Athens, where we might,Without the peril of the Athenian law. | Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough:I beg the law, the law, upon his head.They would have stolen away; they would, Demetrius,Thereby to have defeated you and me,You of your wife and me of my consent,Of my consent that she should be your wife. |
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Egeus Lines
July 15, 2019