Open Source Shakespeare

Speeches (Lines) for Lysander
in "Midsummer Night's Dream"

Total: 50

# Act, Scene, Line
(Click to see in context)
Speech text

1

I,1,98

You have her father's love, Demetrius;
Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him.

2

I,1,104

I am, my lord, as well derived as he,
As well possess'd; my love is more than his;
My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd,
If not with vantage, as Demetrius';
And, which is more than all these boasts can be,
I am beloved of beauteous Hermia:
Why should not I then prosecute my right?
Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,
Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,
And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,
Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,
Upon this spotted and inconstant man.

3

I,1,134

How now, my love! why is your cheek so pale?
How chance the roses there do fade so fast?

4

I,1,138

Ay me! for aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth;
But, either it was different in blood,—

5

I,1,143

Or else misgraffed in respect of years,—

6

I,1,145

Or else it stood upon the choice of friends,—

7

I,1,147

Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,
Making it momentany as a sound,
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.

8

I,1,162

A good persuasion: therefore, hear me, Hermia.
I have a widow aunt, a dowager
Of great revenue, and she hath no child:
From Athens is her house remote seven leagues;
And she respects me as her only son.
There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;
And to that place the sharp Athenian law
Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then,
Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night;
And in the wood, a league without the town,
Where I did meet thee once with Helena,
To do observance to a morn of May,
There will I stay for thee.

9

I,1,186

Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena.

10

I,1,216

Helen, to you our minds we will unfold:
To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold
Her silver visage in the watery glass,
Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,
A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal,
Through Athens' gates have we devised to steal.

11

I,1,232

I will, my Hermia.
[Exit HERMIA]
Helena, adieu:
As you on him, Demetrius dote on you!

12

II,2,689

Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood;
And to speak troth, I have forgot our way:
We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,
And tarry for the comfort of the day.

13

II,2,695

One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;
One heart, one bed, two bosoms and one troth.

14

II,2,699

O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence!
Love takes the meaning in love's conference.
I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit
So that but one heart we can make of it;
Two bosoms interchained with an oath;
So then two bosoms and a single troth.
Then by your side no bed-room me deny;
For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.

15

II,2,716

Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I;
And then end life when I end loyalty!
Here is my bed: sleep give thee all his rest!

16

II,2,762

[Awaking] And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake.
Transparent Helena! Nature shows art,
That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.
Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word
Is that vile name to perish on my sword!

17

II,2,770

Content with Hermia! No; I do repent
The tedious minutes I with her have spent.
Not Hermia but Helena I love:
Who will not change a raven for a dove?
The will of man is by his reason sway'd;
And reason says you are the worthier maid.
Things growing are not ripe until their season
So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason;
And touching now the point of human skill,
Reason becomes the marshal to my will
And leads me to your eyes, where I o'erlook
Love's stories written in love's richest book.

18

II,2,795

She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there:
And never mayst thou come Lysander near!
For as a surfeit of the sweetest things
The deepest loathing to the stomach brings,
Or as tie heresies that men do leave
Are hated most of those they did deceive,
So thou, my surfeit and my heresy,
Of all be hated, but the most of me!
And, all my powers, address your love and might
To honour Helen and to be her knight!

19

III,2,1160

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?

20

III,2,1172

I had no judgment when to her I swore.

21

III,2,1174

Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you.

22

III,2,1200

You are unkind, Demetrius; be not so;
For you love Hermia; this you know I know:
And here, with all good will, with all my heart,
In Hermia's love I yield you up my part;
And yours of Helena to me bequeath,
Whom I do love and will do till my death.

23

III,2,1212

Helen, it is not so.

24

III,2,1224

Why should he stay, whom love doth press to go?

25

III,2,1226

Lysander's love, that would not let him bide,
Fair Helena, who more engilds the night
Than all you fiery oes and eyes of light.
Why seek'st thou me? could not this make thee know,
The hate I bear thee made me leave thee so?

26

III,2,1285

Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse:
My love, my life my soul, fair Helena!

27

III,2,1290

Thou canst compel no more than she entreat:
Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers.
Helen, I love thee; by my life, I do:
I swear by that which I will lose for thee,
To prove him false that says I love thee not.

28

III,2,1296

If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too.

29

III,2,1299

Away, you Ethiope!

30

III,2,1303

Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! vile thing, let loose,
Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent!

31

III,2,1307

Thy love! out, tawny Tartar, out!
Out, loathed medicine! hated potion, hence!

32

III,2,1311

Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee.

33

III,2,1314

What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead?
Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so.

34

III,2,1324

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.

35

III,2,1371

Be not afraid; she shall not harm thee, Helena.

36

III,2,1379

Get you gone, you dwarf;
You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made;
You bead, you acorn.

37

III,2,1388

Now she holds me not;
Now follow, if thou darest, to try whose right,
Of thine or mine, is most in Helena.

38

III,2,1460

Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou now.

39

III,2,1462

I will be with thee straight.

40

III,2,1479

He goes before me and still dares me on:
When I come where he calls, then he is gone.
The villain is much lighter-heel'd than I:
I follow'd fast, but faster he did fly;
That fallen am I in dark uneven way,
And here will rest me.
[Lies down]
Come, thou gentle day!
For if but once thou show me thy grey light,
I'll find Demetrius and revenge this spite.

41

IV,1,1698

Pardon, my lord.

42

IV,1,1704

My lord, I shall reply amazedly,
Half sleep, half waking: but as yet, I swear,
I cannot truly say how I came here;
But, as I think,—for truly would I speak,
And now do I bethink me, so it is,—
I came with Hermia hither: our intent
Was to be gone from Athens, where we might,
Without the peril of the Athenian law.

43

IV,1,1758

And he did bid us follow to the temple.

44

V,1,1862

More than to us
Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed!

45

V,1,1962

He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he knows
not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not
enough to speak, but to speak true.

46

V,1,2073

This lion is a very fox for his valour.

47

V,1,2095

Proceed, Moon.

48

V,1,2111

And so the lion vanished.

49

V,1,2154

Less than an ace, man; for he is dead; he is nothing.

50

V,1,2167

She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes.