Page:Midsummer Night's Dream (1918) Yale.djvu/18

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Her. O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low.

Lys. Or else misgraffed in respect of years,—

Her. O spite! too old to be engag'd to young.

Lys. Or else it stood upon the choice of friends,—

Her. O hell! to choose love by another's eye.

Lys. 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.

Her. If then true lovers have been ever cross'd, It stands as an edict in destiny: Then let us teach our trial patience, Because it is a customary cross, As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs, Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers.

Lys. 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,  137 misgraffed: badly matched 143 momentany: momentary 145 collied: blackened 146 spleen: sudden fit of passion 149 confusion: ruin 150 ever: always 155 fancy's: love's 160 respects: looks upon 