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What? Should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead?

Lysander
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.
Since night you loved me; yet since night you left me.
Why, then, you left me—O, the gods forbid!—
In earnest, shall I say?

You juggler, you cankerblossom,
You thief of love! What, have you come by night
And stol’n my love’s heart from him?

Lysander
Ay, by my life,
And never did desire to see thee more.
Therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt.
Be certain, nothing truer, ’tis no jest
That I do hate thee and love Helena.
 Hermia turns him loose.
Hermia
O me!  To Helena.  You juggler, you cankerblossom,
You thief of love! What, have you come by night
And stol’n my love’s heart from him?
Helena
Fine, i’ faith.
Have you no modesty, no maiden shame,
No touch of bashfulness? What, will you tear
Impatient answers from my gentle tongue?
Fie, fie, you counterfeit, you puppet, you!
Hermia
“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.
And are you grown so high in his esteem
Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
How low am I, thou painted maypole? Speak!
How low am I? I am not yet so low
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.
Helena
I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen,
Let her not hurt me. I was never curst;
I have no gift at all in shrewishness.
I am a right maid for my cowardice.
Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think,
Because she is something lower than myself,
That I can match her.
Hermia
“Lower”? Hark, again!
Helena
Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me.
I evermore did love you, Hermia,
Did ever keep your counsels, never wronged you—
Save that, in love unto Demetrius,
I told him of your stealth unto this wood.
He followed you; for love, I followed him.
But he hath chid me hence and threatened me
To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too.
And now, so you will let me quiet go,
To Athens will I bear my folly back
And follow you no further. Let me go.
You see how simple and how fond I am.
Hermia
Why, get you gone. Who is ’t that hinders you?
Helena
A foolish heart that I leave here behind.
Hermia
What, with Lysander?
Helena
With Demetrius.
Lysander
Be not afraid. She shall not harm thee, Helena.
Demetrius
No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part.
Helena
O, when she is angry, she is keen and shrewd.
She was a vixen when she went to school,
And though she be but little, she is fierce.
Hermia
“Little” again? Nothing but “low” and “little”?
Why will you suffer her to flout me thus?
Let me come to her.
Lysander
Get you gone, you dwarf,
You minimus of hind’ring knotgrass made,
You bead, you acorn—
Demetrius
You are too officious
In her behalf that scorns your services.
Let her alone. Speak not of Helena.
Take not her part. For if thou dost intend
Never so little show of love to her,
Thou shalt aby it.
Lysander
Now she holds me not.
Now follow, if thou dar’st, to try whose right,
Of thine or mine, is most in Helena.
Demetrius
“Follow”? Nay, I’ll go with thee, cheek by jowl.
 Demetrius and Lysander exit.
Hermia
You, mistress, all this coil is long of you.
 Helena retreats.
Nay, go not back.
Helena
I will not trust you, I,
Nor longer stay in your curst company.
Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray.
My legs are longer though, to run away.
 She exits.
Hermia
I am amazed and know not what to say.
 She exits.

Source:
Act 3
Scene 2
Line 283

Source Type:

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