Page:Midsummer Night's Dream (1918) Yale.djvu/33

Night's Dream, II. i  Because I cannot meet my Hermia. Hence! get thee gone, and follow me no more.

Hel. You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant: But yet you draw not iron, for my heart Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw, And I shall have no power to follow you.

Dem. Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair? Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth Tell you I do not nor I cannot love you?

Hel. And even for that do I love you the more. I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius, The more you beat me, I will fawn on you: Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me, Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave, Unworthy as I am, to follow you. What worser place can I beg in your love, And yet a place of high respect with me, Than to be used as you use your dog?

Dem. Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit, For I am sick when I do look on you.

Hel. And I am sick when I look not on you.

Dem. You do impeach your modesty too much, To leave the city, and commit yourself Into the hands of one that loves you not; To trust the opportunity of night And the ill counsel of a desert place With the rich worth of your virginity.

Hel. Your virtue is my privilege: for that It is not night when I do see your face, Therefore I think I am not in the night; Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company, For you in my respect are all the world:  195 adamant: hard stone with magnetic power 214 impeach: call in question 220 for that: because 224 respect: regard 