A Midsommer nightes dreame.
135Of
some thing, nerely that concernes your
selues.
¶Ege. With duety and de
sire, we follow you.
Exeunt._
¶Lysand. How now my loue? Why is your cheeke
so pale?
¶How chance the ro
ses there doe fade
so fa
st?
140Her. Belike, for want of raine: which I could well
¶Beteeme them, from the tempe
st of my eyes.
¶Lis. Eigh me: for aught that I could euer reade,
¶Could euer here by tale or hi
story,
¶The cour
se of true loue neuer did runne
smoothe:
145But either it was different in bloud;
¶Her. O cro
sse! too high to be inthrald to loue.
¶Lis. Or el
se mi
sgraffed, in re
spect of yeares;
¶Her. O
spight! too olde to be ingag'd to young.
¶Lis. Or el
se, it
stoode vpon the choyce of friends;
150Her. O hell, to choo
se loue by anothers eyes!
¶Lys. Or, if there were a
sympathy in choyce,
¶Warre, death or
sickne
sse, did lay
siege to it;
¶Making it momentany, as a
sound;
¶Swift, as a
shadowe;
short, as any dreame;
155Briefe, as the lightning in the collied night,
¶That (in a
spleene) vnfolds both heauen and earth;
¶And, ere a man hath power to
say, beholde,
¶The iawes of darkene
sse do deuoure it vp:
¶So quicke bright things come to confu
sion.
160Her. If then true louers haue bin euer cro
st,
¶It
stands as an edict, in de
stiny:
¶Then let vs teach our triall patience:
¶Becau
se it is a cu
stomary cro
sse,
¶As dewe to loue, as thoughts, and dreames, and
sighes,
165Wi
shes, and teares; poore Fancies followers.
¶Lys. A good per
swa
sion: therefore heare mee,
Hermia:
¶I haue a widowe aunt, a dowager,
¶Of great reuenew, and
she hath no childe:
¶From
Athens is her hou
se remote,
seauen leagues:
170And
she re
spectes mee, as her only
sonne:
A4
