Helena
Midsummer Night's Dream:
Notes on Helena
Video: Lo! She is one of this confederacy
Read the NoteFrom Peter Hall’s film (January 30, 1968) of A Midsummer Night’s Dream featuring Michael Jayston, Helen Mirren, Diana Rigg, and David Warner.
Quotes spoken by the character Helena
Godspeed, fair Helena. Whither away?
Read the QuoteHermia
Godspeed, fair Helena. Whither away?
Helena
Call you me “fair”? That “fair” again unsay.
Demetrius loves your fair. O happy fair!
Your eyes are lodestars and your tongue’s sweet air
More tunable than lark to shepherd’s ear
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
O happy fair!
Your eyes are lodestars and your tongue’s sweet air
More tunable than lark to shepherd’s ear
When wheat is green,
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How happy some o’er other some can be!
Read the QuoteHelena
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, folding no quantity,
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I love thee not; therefore pursue me not
Read the QuoteDemetrius
I love thee not; therefore pursue me not.
Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?
The one I’ll stay; the other stayeth me.
Thou told’st me they were stol’n unto this wood,
And here am I, and wood within this wood
Because I cannot meet my Hermia.
Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.
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O, I am out of breath in this fond chase
Read the QuoteHelena
O, I am out of breath in this fond chase.
The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.
Happy is Hermia, wheresoe’er she lies,
For she hath blessèd and attractive eyes.
How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears.
If so, my eyes are oftener washed than hers.
Reason becomes the marshal to my will
And leads me to your eyes,
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Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?
Read the QuoteLysander
Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?
Scorn and derision never come in tears.
Look when I vow, I weep; and vows so born,
In their nativity all truth appears.
How can these things in me seem scorn to you,
Bearing the badge of faith to prove them true?
Weigh oath with oath and you will nothing weigh.
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Lo! She is one of this confederacy
Read the QuoteLo! She is one of this confederacy.
Now I perceive, they have conjoin’d all three
To fashion this false sport, in spite of me.Alliteration
So we grew together,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,
But yet an union in partition,
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem
Injurious Hermia, most ungrateful maid!
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Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn
Read the QuoteHelena
Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn,
To follow me and praise my eyes and face,
And made your other love, Demetrius,
Who even but now did spurn me with his foot,
To call me goddess, nymph, divine and rare,
Precious, celestial? Wherefore speaks he this
To her he hates? And wherefore doth Lysander
Deny your love (so rich within his soul)
And tender me,
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What? Should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead?
Read the QuoteLysander
What? Should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead?
Although I hate her, I’ll not harm her so.
Hermia
What, can you do me greater harm than hate?
Hate me? Wherefore? O me, what news, my love?
Am not I Hermia? Are not you Lysander?
I am as fair now as I was erewhile.
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O weary night, O long and tedious night
Read the QuoteHelena
O weary night, O long and tedious night,
Abate thy hours! Shine, comforts, from the east,
That I may back to Athens by daylight
From these that my poor company detest.
And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow’s eye,
Steal me awhile from mine own company.
She lies down and sleeps.
And sleep,
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My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth
Read the QuoteDemetrius
My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,
Of this their purpose hither to this wood,
And I in fury hither followed them,
Fair Helena in fancy following me.
And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,
Mine own and not mine own.
But, my good lord, I wot not by what power
(But by some power it is) my love to Hermia,
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