<SPEECH 1><ACT 1><SCENE 1><4%>
<LYSANDER>	<5%>
	You have her father's love, Demetrius;
	Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 2><ACT 1><SCENE 1><4%>
<LYSANDER>	<5%>
	I am, my lord, as well deriv'd 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 belov'd 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.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 3><ACT 1><SCENE 1><6%>
<LYSANDER>	<6%>
	How now, my love! Why is your cheek so pale?
	How chance the roses there do fade so fast?
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 4><ACT 1><SCENE 1><6%>
<LYSANDER>	<6%>
	Ay me! for aught that ever I could read,
	Could ever hear by tale or history,
	The course of true love never did run smooth;
	But, either it was different in blood,—
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 5><ACT 1><SCENE 1><6%>
<LYSANDER>	<7%>
	Or else misgraffed in respect of years,—
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 6><ACT 1><SCENE 1><6%>
<LYSANDER>	<7%>
	Or else it stood upon the choice of friends,—
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 7><ACT 1><SCENE 1><6%>
<LYSANDER>	<7%>
	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.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 8><ACT 1><SCENE 1><7%>
<LYSANDER>	<8%>
	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 lov'st 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.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 9><ACT 1><SCENE 1><8%>
<LYSANDER>	<9%>
	Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena.

</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 10><ACT 1><SCENE 1><9%>
<LYSANDER>	<10%>
	Helen, to you our minds we will unfold.
	To-morrow night, when Phœbe doth behold
	Her silver visage in the wat'ry glass,
	Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,—
	A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal,—
	Through Athens' gates have we devis'd to steal.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 11><ACT 1><SCENE 1><10%>
<LYSANDER>	<11%>
	I will, my Hermia.—<STAGE DIR>
<Exit Hermia.>
</STAGE DIR> Helena, adieu:
	As you on him, Demetrius dote on you!
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 12><ACT 2><SCENE 2><30%>
<LYSANDER>	<31%>
	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.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 13><ACT 2><SCENE 2><30%>
<LYSANDER>	<31%>
	One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;
	One heart, one bed, two bosoms, and one troth.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 14><ACT 2><SCENE 2><30%>
<LYSANDER>	<31%>
	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.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 15><ACT 2><SCENE 2><31%>
<LYSANDER>	<32%>
	Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I;
	And then end life when I end loyalty!
<STAGE DIR>
<Retires a little distance.>
</STAGE DIR>
	Here is my bed: sleep give thee all his rest!
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 16><ACT 2><SCENE 2><33%>
<LYSANDER>	<34%>
<STAGE DIR>
<Awaking.>
</STAGE DIR> 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.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 17><ACT 2><SCENE 2><33%>
<LYSANDER>	<34%>
	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.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 18><ACT 2><SCENE 2><34%>
<LYSANDER>	<35%>
	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 the 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.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 19><ACT 3><SCENE 2><51%>
<LYSANDER>	<51%>
	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?
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 20><ACT 3><SCENE 2><51%>
<LYSANDER>	<52%>
	I had no judgment when to her I swore.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 21><ACT 3><SCENE 2><51%>
<LYSANDER>	<52%>
	Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 22><ACT 3><SCENE 2><52%>
<LYSANDER>	<53%>
	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 to my death.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 23><ACT 3><SCENE 2><53%>
<LYSANDER>	<54%>
	Helen, it is not so.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 24><ACT 3><SCENE 2><53%>
<LYSANDER>	<54%>
	Why should he stay, whom love doth press to go?
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 25><ACT 3><SCENE 2><54%>
<LYSANDER>	<54%>
	Lysander's love, that would not let him bide,
	Fair Helena, who more engilds the night
	Than all yon 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?
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 26><ACT 3><SCENE 2><56%>
<LYSANDER>	<57%>
	Stay, gentle Helena! hear my excuse:
	My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena!
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 27><ACT 3><SCENE 2><56%>
<LYSANDER>	<57%>
	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.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 28><ACT 3><SCENE 2><57%>
<LYSANDER>	<58%>
	If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 29><ACT 3><SCENE 2><57%>
<LYSANDER>	<58%>
	Away, you Ethiop!
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 30><ACT 3><SCENE 2><57%>
<LYSANDER>	<58%>
<STAGE DIR>
<To Hermia.>
</STAGE DIR> Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! vile thing, let loose,
	Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 31><ACT 3><SCENE 2><57%>
<LYSANDER>	<58%>
	Thy love! out, tawny Tartar, out!
	Out, loathed medicine! hated poison, hence!
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 32><ACT 3><SCENE 2><57%>
<LYSANDER>	<58%>
	Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 33><ACT 3><SCENE 2><58%>
<LYSANDER>	<58%>
	What! should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead?
	Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 34><ACT 3><SCENE 2><58%>
<LYSANDER>	<59%>
	Ay, by my life;
	And never did desire to see thee more.
	Therefore be out of hope, of question, doubt;
	Be certain, nothing truer: 'tis no jest,
	That I do hate thee and love Helena.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 35><ACT 3><SCENE 2><60%>
<LYSANDER>	<61%>
	Be not afraid: she shall not harm thee, Helena.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 36><ACT 3><SCENE 2><60%>
<LYSANDER>	<61%>
	Get you gone, you dwarf;
	You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made;
	You bead, you acorn!
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 37><ACT 3><SCENE 2><61%>
<LYSANDER>	<61%>
	Now she holds me not;
	Now follow, if thou dar'st, to try whose right,
	Or thine or mine, is most in Helena.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 38><ACT 3><SCENE 2><64%>
<LYSANDER>	<65%>
	Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou now.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 39><ACT 3><SCENE 2><64%>
<LYSANDER>	<65%>
	I will be with thee straight.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 40><ACT 3><SCENE 2><65%>
<LYSANDER>	<65%>
	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. <STAGE DIR>
<Lies down.>
</STAGE DIR> Come, thou gentle day!
	For if but once thou show me thy grey light,
	I'll find Demetrius and revenge this spite.
<STAGE DIR>
<Sleeps.>
</STAGE DIR>

</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 41><ACT 4><SCENE 1><74%>
<LYSANDER>	<75%>
	Pardon, my lord.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 42><ACT 4><SCENE 1><74%>
<LYSANDER>	<75%>
	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 I do 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—
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 43><ACT 4><SCENE 1><76%>
<LYSANDER>	<77%>
	And he did bid us follow to the temple.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 44><ACT 5><SCENE 1><81%>
<LYSANDER>	<82%>
	More than to us
	Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed!
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 45><ACT 5><SCENE 1><86%>
<LYSANDER>	<86%>
	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.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 46><ACT 5><SCENE 1><91%>
<LYSANDER>	<92%>
	This lion is a very fox for his valour.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 47><ACT 5><SCENE 1><92%>
<LYSANDER>	<93%>
	Proceed, Moon.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 48><ACT 5><SCENE 1><93%>
<LYSANDER>	<94%>
	And so the lion vanished.

</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 49><ACT 5><SCENE 1><95%>
<LYSANDER>	<95%>
	Less than an ace, man, for he is dead; he is nothing.
</LYSANDER>

<SPEECH 50><ACT 5><SCENE 1><95%>
<LYSANDER>	<96%>
	She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes.
</LYSANDER>

