A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. Уильям Шекспир

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СКАЧАТЬ I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus.

       HELENA

       O, wilt thou darkling leave me? do not so.

       DEMETRIUS.

       Stay on thy peril; I alone will go.

       [Exit DEMETRIUS.]

       HELENA

       O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!

       The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.

       Happy is Hermia, wheresoe’er she lies,

       For she hath blessèd and attractive eyes.

       How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears:

       If so, my eyes are oftener wash’d than hers.

       No, no, I am as ugly as a bear;

       For beasts that meet me run away for fear:

       Therefore no marvel though Demetrius

       Do, as a monster, fly my presence thus.

       What wicked and dissembling glass of mine

       Made me compare with Hermia’s sphery eyne?—

       But who is here?—Lysander! on the ground!

       Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound.

       Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake.

       LYSANDER

       [Waking.]

       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!

       HELENA

       Do not say so, Lysander; say not so:

       What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though?

       Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content.

       LYSANDER.

       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.

       HELENA

       Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born?

       When at your hands did I deserve this scorn?

       Is’t not enough, is’t not enough, young man,

       That I did never, no, nor never can

       Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius’ eye,

       But you must flout my insufficiency?

       Good troth, you do me wrong,—good sooth, you do—

       In such disdainful manner me to woo.

       But fare you well: perforce I must confess,

       I thought you lord of more true gentleness.

       O, that a lady of one man refus’d

       Should of another therefore be abus’d!

       [Exit.]

       LYSANDER

       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!

       [Exit.]

       HERMIA

       [Starting.]

       Help me, Lysander, help me! do thy best

       To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!

       Ay me, for pity!—What a dream was here!

       Lysander, look how I do quake with fear!

       Methought a serpent eat my heart away,

       And you sat smiling at his cruel prey.—

       Lysander! what, removed? Lysander! lord!

       What, out of hearing? gone? no sound, no word?

       Alack, where are you? speak, an if you hear;

       Speak, of all loves! I swoon almost with fear.

       No?—then I well perceive you are not nigh:

       Either death or you I’ll find immediately.

       [Exit.]

ACT III

       Table of Contents

      SCENE I. The Wood. The Queen of Fairies lying asleep

      [Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING.]

       BOTTOM

       Are we all met?

       QUINCE

       СКАЧАТЬ