A Midsummer Night's Dream

"Hippolyta, I woo’d thee with my sword, And won thy love, doing thee injuries."

"To you your father should be as a god; ... To whom you are but as a form in wax By him imprinted."

"I would my father look’d but with my eyes."

"For aye to be in shady cloister mew’d, To live a barren sister all your life, Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon."

"Earthlier happy is the rose distill'd, Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn, Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness."

"For aught that I could ever read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth."

"O, hell! to choose love by another’s eyes."

"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."

"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, ... By all the vows that ever men have broke, In number more than ever women spoke."

"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 judgement taste; Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste: And therefore is love said to be a child, Because in choice he is so oft beguiled."

"Quince: Marry, our play is, The most lamentable comedy, and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby. Bottom: A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a merry."

"Masters, spread yourselves."

"Bottom: What is Pyramus? a lover, or a tyrant? Quince: A lover, that kills himself most gallant for love."

"A part to tear a cat in, to make all split."

"This is Ercles’ vein."

"Nay, faith, let not me play a woman; I have a beard coming."

"I’ll speak in a monstrous little voice."

"I am slow of study."

"That would hang us, every mother’s son."

"I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove; I will roar you an ’twere any nightingale."

"A proper man, as one shall see in a summer’s day."

"We will meet; and there we may rehearse most obscenely and courageously."

"Enough; hold or cut bow-strings."

"How now, spirit! whither wander you?"

"Over hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough brier, Over park, over pale, Thorough flood, thorough fire, I do wander every where, Swifter than the moon’s sphere; And I serve the fairy queen, To dew her orbs upon the green. The cowslips tall her pensioners be: In their gold coats spots you see; Those be rubies, fairy favours, In those freckles live their savours: I must go seek some dewdrops here, And hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear. Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I’ll be gone: Our queen and all her elves come here anon."

"I am that merry wanderer of the night."

"Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania."

"And never, since the middle summer’s spring, Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead, By paved fountain or by rushy brook, Or in the beached margent of the sea, To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind, But with thy brawls thou hast disturb’d our sport."

"The ox hath therefore stretch’d his yoke in vain, The ploughman lost his sweat; and the green corn Hath rotted ere his youth attain’d a beard: The fold stands empty in the drowned field, And crows are fatted with the murrion flock; The nine men’s morris is fill’d up with mud; And the quaint mazes in the wanton green, For lack of tread, are undistinguishable."

"The human mortals."

"The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose; And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer, The childing autumn, angry winter, change Their wonted liveries."

"Once I sat upon a promontory, And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back, Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, That the rude sea grew civil at her song; And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, To hear the sea-maid’s music."

"And the imperial votaress passed on, In maiden meditation, fancy-free. Yet mark’d 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."

"I’ll put a girdle round about the earth In forty minutes."

"My heart Is true as steel."

"I am your spaniel."

"We cannot fight for love, as men may do; We should be woo’d, and were not made to woo."

"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."

"You spotted snakes with double tongue. Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen; Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong, Come not near our fairy queen."

"Weaving spiders, come not here; Hence, you long-legg’d spinners, hence! Beetles black, approach not near; Worm nor snail, do no offence."

"What thou seest when thou dost wake, Do it for thy true-love take; Love and languish for his sake: Be it ounce, or cat, or bear, Pard, or boar with bristled hair, In thy eye that shall appear When thou wakest, it is thy dear: Wake when some vile thing is near."

"Night and silence.—Who is here?"

"The will of man is by his reason sway’d."

"A lion among ladies, is a most dreadful thing."

"Snout: You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom? Bottom: Some man or other must present wall: and let him have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast about him, to signify wall."

"What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here."

"Flute: Must I speak now? Quince: Ay, marry, must you; for you must understand he goes but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again."

"O monstrous! O strange! we are haunted. Pray, masters! fly, masters! Help!"

"Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art translated."

"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."