| “O, hell! to choose love by another’s eyes.” | Hermia to Lysander–how awful is it to let others choose who you can love/be with |
| “I am slow of study.” | Snug–plays the lion and says he is a little “slow” to pick up on what to do |
| “I’ll put a girdle round about the earth In forty minutes.” | Puck to Oberon–he will circle the earth quickly in order to get the pansy |
| “I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.” | Oberon to Puck–about where Titania is hanging out Bottom and doting on him. |
| “A lion among ladies is a most dreadful thing.” | Bottom to the actors–he thinks that they will actually be scared of the fake lion |
| “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” | Puck says this about the lovers who are all mixed up because of the potion. It is an important theme in the story. |
| “The true beginning of our end.” | Prologue (Quince)–says this when they perform in front of the Duke and Duchess. He mixes up his words and makes it sound like they are going to die. |
| “For never anything can be amiss, When simpleness and duty tender it.” | Theseus to Hippolyta–he says that they will watch the play even though it is terrible because nothing can be wrong when people work hard. |
| “Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.” | Titania to Bottom–she dotes on Bottom–she fell in love with a “vile” creature just like |
| “What, have you come by night and stolen my love’s heart from him?” | Hermia to Helena–accuses him of stealing Lysander from her (he is under the spell). |
| “When thou wakest, thou takest true delight in the sight of thy former lady’s eye.” | Puck takes the potion off of Lysander, so he will be able to love Hermia again. |
| “Where are these lads? Where are these hearts?” | Bottom says this to the actors when he finally returns from his night with Titania. |
| “But all the story of the night told over, and all their minds transfigured so together.” | Hippolyta says this to Theseus about all of the lovers’ stories. They are all so similar that they couldn’t possibly have lied. |
| “Give me your hands, if we be friends, and Robin shall restore amends.” | Puck says this at the very end to the audience. He tells them to clap. |
| “Call you me fair? That fair again unsay.” | Helena to Hermia. Hermia calls Helena “fair” which means beauty, in this context it also refers to Helena’s blonde hair which she says Demetrius has rejected in favor of Hermia’s dark hair. |
| “If thou lovest me, then Steal forth from thy father’s house tonight.” | Lysander to Hermia–If you love me, sneak out of your house tonight and meet me in the woods (!) |
| “I will go tell him of fair Hermia’s flight.” | Helena says this about telling Demetrius that Hermia and Lysander have run away. She hopes he will like her telling him this news and then like her again. |
| “Let me play the lion too.” | Bottom wants to play all of the parts in the play. He is quite over zealous. |
| “Thou speakest aright I am the merry wanderer of the night I jest to Oberon and make him smile.” | Puck to the Fairy who serves Titania. She knows who he is–the mischievous sprite. |
| “And this same progeny of evil comes. From our debate, from our dissention: We are their parents and original.” | Titania to Oberon–their fighting has caused natural disasters. |
| “Thou shalt know the man By the Athenian garments he hath on.” | Oberon to Puck–he tells Puck to put the spell on the man (Demetrius) in Athenian clothing who looks like he is being mean to a lady (Helena) |
| “I am your spaniel.” | Helena to Demetrius. She is very desperate. |
| “Not Hermia but Helena I love; who would not change a raven for a dove?” | Lysander to Helena–he is under the spell of love for her and tells her she is a dove while Hermia is a raven |
| “O monstrous! O strange! We are haunted. Pray masters, fly masters! Help!” | Quince says this to the actors when he sees that Bottom has a donkey’s head. |
| “Most ungrateful maid! Have you conspired, have you with these contrived To bait me with this foul derision?” | Helena to Hermia–she is quite angry at her “friend” because she thinks that Hermia and the boys are making fun of her. |
| “How came these thing to pass? O! How mine eyes do loathe his visage now!” | Titania to Oberon about Bottom. Oberon takes the spell off of her, and she sees Bottom (still with a donkey head) and is disgusted by him. |
| “Why then, we are awake. Let’s follow him And by the way let us recount our dreams.” | Demetrius to Lysander after they are discovered by Hippolyta, Theseus, and Egeus. He says that on their way back to the Duke’s palace, they can discuss their bizarre dreams. |
| “This is the silliest stuff that I ever heard.” | Hippolyta to Thesus about the lovers and their stories about being in the woods and having weird things happen to them. |
| “Get you gone you dwarf; You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made; you bead, you acorn!” | Lysander to Hermia–he is under the spell and is being cruel to her and making her feel badly about her short height. |
| “Do thy best To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!” | Hermia to herself. She wakes up without Lysander (he is after Helena), and she recounts her dream about having her heart eaten by a serpent as he sits there and smiles. |
| “How now, spirit! whither wander you?” | Puck to Fairy–asking her where she is going. She serves Titania. |
| “I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove; I will roar you, as ’twere any nightingale.” | Bottom to the actors. He wants to play all of the parts in the play, |
| “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,” | Hippolyta to Theseus–4 days will go by quickly. She is referring to their wedding day. He cannot seem to wait. |
| “With feigning voice, verses of feigning love, and stolen the impression of her fantasy. With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits, knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeals, messengers,” | Egeus to Theseus about how Lysander wooed his daughter with gifts and poems. |
| “As she is mine, I may dispose of her: Which shall be either to this gentlemen [Demetrius] or to her death, according to our law,” | Egeus to Thesues–Hermia is mine and I can do what I want to her, according to the law (which includes killing her). |
| “But in this kind, wanting your father’s voice, the other must be held worthier.” | Theseus to Hermia–even though Lysander is a worthy man, you have to marry Demetrius because that is what your father wants. |
| “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.” | Theseus to Hermia. You have 3 choices: get married to Demetrius, become a nun, or die. |
| “So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord, Ere I will yield my virgin patent up Unto his lordship.” | Hermia to Theseus–I would rather become a nun or die rather than give myself up to someone I do not love. |
| “I am, my lord, as well derived as he, as well possess’d, my love is more than his; my foruntes every way as fairly rank’d, if not with vantage” | Lysander to Theseus–I have just as much money and social status as Demetrius. |
| “Belike for want of rain, which I could well, Between them from the tempest of my eyes.” | Hermia to Lysander–he asks her why he face is pale and cheeks not rosy and she says that her rosy cheeks lack rain but could soon receive it from the tempest of her eyes. A tempest is a huge storm, so she means that she is so upset that she is going to cry A LOT. |
| “Through Athens’ gates have we devised to steal.” | Lysander to Helena about he and Hermia’s plan to run away to his aunt’s house outside of Athens. |
| “We will meet; and there we may rehearse most obscenely.” | Bottom tells the actors that they will meet in the woods and rehearse obscenely (which means in a vulgar way). He clearly uses the wrong word. |
| “And 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,” | Quince to Bottom about playing the lion and frightening the ladies in the audience. |
| “Over hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough brier, Over park, over pale, Thorough flood, thorough fire I do wander everywhere Swifter than the moon’s sphere. And I serve the fairy queen,” | Fairy to Puck–she serves the fairy queen Titania |
| “She never had so sweet a changeling, and jealous Oberon would have the child knight of his train, to trace the forests wild; but she perforce with holds the loved boy, crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her joy,” | Puck says this to Fairy about Titania having the Indian child. Oberon wants the child. |
| “Are not you he that frights the maidens of the villagery, skim milk and sometimes labour in the queen, and bootless make the breath less housewife churn; and sometime make the drink to bear no barm,” | Fairy says this to Puck. She recognizes that he is the fairy that causes trouble. |
| “Thou speak’st aright; I am that merry wanderer of the night.” | Puck to the Fairy |
| “Your buskin’d mistress and your warrior love, to Theseus must be wedded, and you come to give their bed joy and prosperity.” | Titania–to Oberon–accusing him of having a crush on Hippolyta |
| “These are the forgeries of jealousy: and never, since the middle summer’s spring.” | Titania–Oberon–referencing their ongoing argument–they are both jealous of each other for loving other people |
| “But she, being mortal, of that boy did die; and for her sake do I rear up her boy; and for her sake I will not part with him.” | Titania-Oberon–explaining that she cares for the Indian child because she was good friend’s with his both who died giving birth to him |
| “Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew’d thee once: the juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid, will make of man or woman madly dote, upon the next live creature that it sees.” | Oberon–Puck–he tells him to get the flower with the magic power |
| “I love thee not, therefore pursue me not,” | Demetrius to Helena–he tells her he does not love her and she needs to leave him alone. |
| “You do impeach your modesty too much, to leave the city and commit yourself into the of one that loves you not; trust the opportunity of the night,” | Demetrius–Helena–he says to her that she is risking her safety to be in the woods alone. |
| “Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex: we cannot fight for love, as men may do; we should be woo’d, and were not mad to woo. I’ll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell, to die upon the hand I love so well.” | Helena to Demetrius–talking about the double standard. Men can woo women, but women cannot woo men. |
| “And with the juice of this I’ll streak her eyes, and make her full of hateful fantasies,” | Oberon to Titania as she sleeps. He wants her to fall in love with something vile. |
| “This is the woman, but not this the man.” | Puck to Oberon. He realizes that he put the potion on Lysander and not on Demetrius. Demetrius is still after Hermia and he should be after Helena if the potion was put on the right person. |
| “Look when I vow, I weep; and vows so born, in their nativity all truth appears,” | Lysander |
| “Have with our needles created both one flower, both on one sampler sitting on one cushion, both warbling of one song, both in one key,” | Helena to Hermia–reminding her of the friendship that they have had over the years. |
| “I am amazed at your passionate words, I scorn you not; it seems you scorn me,” | Hermia to herself. She is confused about what is happening and why Lysander no longer loves her. |
| “You thief of love what have you come by night and stolen my love’s heart from him,” | Hermia to Helena |
| “She was a vixen when she went to school; And though she by but little, she is fierce,” | Helena about Hermia–she is saying she is a ruthless and fierce lady |
| “Jack shall have Jill; Nought shall go ill,” | Puck –he takes the spell off from Lysander’s eyes and says that everyone will love the right person now. |
| “One turf shall serve as a pillow for us both. One heart, one bed, two bosoms, and one troth.” | Lysander to Hermia–he wants them to sleep next to him. |
| “If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep, Being o’er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep, And kill me too.” | Hermia to Demetrius–If you killed Lysander then kill me too. |
| “Out, dog! Out, cur! Thou drivest me past the bounds Of maiden’s patience. Hast thou slain him then? Henceforth be never numbered among men? Oh, once tell true, tell true even for my sake- Durst thou have looked upon him being awake, And hast thou killed him sleeping? O brave touch! Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?” | Hermia to Demetrius–she wants to know if Demetrius killed Lysander because she does not understand why she woke up in the woods and he was not by her side. |
| “These vows are Hermia’s. Will you give her o’er?” | Helena to Lysander–Lysander is expressing his love to her, and Helena reminds him that he gave his vows/love to Hermia. |
| “O Helena, goddess, nyph, perfect, divine! To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne? Crystal is muddy. Oh, how ripe in show Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!” | Demetrius to Helena–he is now under the spell and says it to her. Lysander is under the spell, too. He just told Helena that Demetrius doesn’t like her, but then he wakes up and says this quotation. She is really confused at this point. |
| “What love could press Lysander from my side?” | Hermia to Lysander–she asks him why he would leave her alone in the woods,. |
| “Why seek’st thou me? Could not this make thee know The hate I bear thee made me leave thee so?” | Lysander to Hermia after he is under the spell. She asked him why he left her alone. |
| “‘Puppet’? Why so? -Ay, that way goes the game. Now I perceive that she hath made compare Between our statures. She hath urged her height, And with her personage, her tall personage, Her height, forsooth, she hath prevailed with him.” | Hermia to Helena–Helena calls Hermia a puppet which means a doll (and someone who is hsort) |
| “Her dotage now I do begin to pity.” | Oberon to Puck |
| “My lord, I shall reply amazedly, Half asleep, half waking. But as yet, I swear, I cannot truly say how I came here.” | Lysander to Theseus. He has no idea how they arrived in the forest on the ground. |
| “Enough, enough, my lord. You have enough! I beg the law, the law, upon his head.” | Egeus to Theseus–after Lysander explains that he and Hermia ran away to be married, Egeus wants him to be punished. |
| “But by some power it is – my love to Hermia, Melted as the snow, seems to me now As the remembrance of an idle gaud Which in my childhood I did dote upon” | Demetrius to Egeus–his love to Hermia melted like the snow. He also compares his love to a toy a child wants that loses interest once he gets it. |
| “I have had a dream – past the wit of man to say what dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about to expound this dream.” | Bottom to the actors about his experiences with Titania. He says that he would sound like an ass/fool if he tried to explain it. |
| “‘Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of.” | Hippolyta to Theseus about the lovers talking about their dreams. |
| “Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend More than cool reason ever comprehends. The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact.” | Theseus to Hippolyta–lovers, madmen, and poets all possess a huge imagination. |
| “I woo’d thee with my sword…But I will wed thee in another key.” | Theseus to Hippolyta–I forced you to be with me/captured you, but I really love you and want to marry you under happy terms. |
| “If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended – That you have but slumbered here While these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream.” | Puck says this at the end of the play. If you don’t like a play, just consider it a dream. An illusion. |
| “Full of vexation come I!” | Egeus to Theseus–Egeus is angry that his daughter is disobeying him and wants to marry Lysander instead of Demetrius. |
| “This man hath bewitched the bosom of my child.” | Egeus about Lysander–he thinks that Lysander has stolen his daughter’s heart with all of his love poems and gifts |
| “With cunning has thou filched my daughter’s heart,/Turned her obedience (which is due to me)/To stubborn harshness.” | Egeus about Lysander–another quotation that accused Lysander of stealing Hermia’s heart and making her not obey her father–which she is supposed to do according to custom. |
| “To you your father should be a god.” | Theseus to Hermia–you must view your father as a god and obey him. He can destroy you. |
| “I would my father looked but with my eyes.” | Hermia to Theseus–she boldly says this, and it means that she wishes that her father saw how much she loved Lysander. She wants him to see it through her point of view. |
| “So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord, / Ere I will yield my virgin patent up / Unto his lordship whose unwishèd yoke / My soul consents not to give sovereignty.” | Hermia to Theseus–I would rather die that give myself to Demetrius |
| Who is “spotted” and “inconstant”? | Demetrius is morally blemished and fickle in his affections. Lysander says this about him. It means he is a player. |
| “Come, my Hippolyta; what cheer my love?” | Theseus says this to Hippolyta. It means, what is wrong? She stands there in shock that he is so callous and cold-hearted about his treatment of Hermia and her love for Lysander. |
| “The course of true love never did run smooth.” | Lysander to Hermia–love is never easy |
| “O, teach me how you look, and with what art/You sway the motion of Demetrius’ heart.” | Helena to Hermia–teach me how you get Demetrius to love you. |
| “Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind;/ And therefore is cupid painted blind.” | Helena to herself. Love is blind. Cupid is sometimes depicted as having a blindfold on. |
| “For ere Demetrius looked on Hermia’s eyes/He hailed oaths that he was mine.” | Helena to self. It means that at one time Demetrius did love her and dote on her. |
| “Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell: It fell upon a little western flower, Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound, And maidens call it, Love-in-idleness.” | Oberon to Puck. Describes the flower with the magic powers to make people fall in love with the first person or beast they see. Represents illusions. We live in a fantasy-land, in a land of illusions. |
| “God shield us!–a lion among ladies, is a most dreadful thing; for there is not a more fearful wild-fowl than your lion living” | Bottom says this to the other actors. They don’t really understand the element of illusion in theater. |
| “What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here, So near the cradle of the fairy queen?” | Puck says this about the actors practicing the play. He calls them rude or rustic folk. He recognizes that they are not very sharp (and are terrible actors). |
| Who calls whom a “crew of patches” and “rude mechanicals”? What does it mean? | Puck calls the actors this. A group of clowns/fools and ignorant working class people. |
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Quote Interpretations
July 4, 2019