A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Key Quotes

“Ay me, for aught that I could ever read,

Could ever hear by tale or history,

The course of true love never did run smooth;

But either it was different in blood—” (Act I, Scene I, 132–135)

(Act 1, Scene 1) (Lysander)

Analysis

Lysander utters these words to Hermia to comfort her upon realizing the difficulties that lie in the path of their love, especially in the form of Egeus, Hermia’s father. Egeus does not want Hermia to marry Lysander and wants her to marry Demetrius instead. Moreover, Theseus, the Duke, has threatened Hermia that she will be put to death if she doesn’t comply with her father’s wish. Here, Lysander tries to remind Hermia that great love stories are never easy.

“That very time I saw (but thou couldst not),

Flying between the cold moon and the earth,

Cupid all arm’d. A certain aim he took

At a fair vestal throned by the west,

And loos’d his love-shaft smartly from his bow,

As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;

But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft

Quench’d in the chaste beams of the wat’ry moon,

And the imperial vot’ress passed on,

In maiden meditation, fancy-free.

Yet mark’d I where the bold of Cupid fell.

It fell upon the western flower,

Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound,

And maidens called it love-in-idleness.” (Act II, Scene I, 155–135)

(Act 2, Scene 2) (Oberon)

Analysis

In this extremely poetic speech, Oberon, the king of the fairies, explains to Puck the origin of the magical flower; the potion derived from the flower can be applied to the eyelids of a sleeping person to make them fall in love. When they wake up, they will fall in love with the first creature they set their eyes on. It is important to note here that Shakespeare uses poetic language for the fairies, especially for Oberon and Titania. He does so in order to accentuate the magical atmosphere in the world of fantasy. Oberon, in these lines, narrates the story of how Cupid once tried to use his arrow on a “fair vestal,” who was “throned,” but had missed his mark. The magical flower sprung at the spot where the arrow hit the ground. Because the arrow had missed its mark, the virgin maiden did not fall in love and continued to rule her land. The virgin woman alluded to here is Elizabeth I, the ruler of England at the time. She never married and was perceived as someone who was wedded to the throne.

“If we shadows have offended,

Think but this, and all is mended:

That you have but slumbered here,

While these visions did appear;

And this weak and idle theme,

No more yielding but a dream,

Gentles, do not reprehend.

If you pardon, we will mend.” (Act V, Scene I, 423–430)

(Act 5, Scene 1) (Puck)

Analysis

Toward the end of the play, Puck delivers this extremely important monologue, in which he extends the theme of dreams beyond the scope of the play and raises questions regarding the reality of the audience’s experience. Many characters in the play think that the fantastical midsummer evening was nothing more than a vivid dream. Similarly, Puck begs the audience for forgiveness if the play has offended them in any way and urges the audience to consider the play as a dream.

“I have had a most

rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of

man to say what dream it was. Man is but an ass,

if he go about t’expound this dream. Methought

I was—there is no man can tell what. Methought I

was, and methought I had—but man is but a patched

fool, if he will offer to say what methought I

had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man

hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his

tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report

what my dream was. I will get Peter Quince to write a

ballad of this dream. It shall be called ‘Bottom’s Dream,’

because it hath no bottom; and I will

sing it in the latter end of a play, before the Duke.” (Act IV, Scene I, 204–217)

(Act 4, Scene 1) (Bottom)

“Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,

Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend

More than cool reason ever comprehends.

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet

Are of imagination all compact.” (Act V, Scene I, 4–8)

(Act 5, Scene 1) (Theseus)

“Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.

But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so.

He will not know what all but he do know.

And as he errs, doting on Hermia’s eyes,

So I, admiring of his qualities.

Things base and vile, holding no quantity,

Love can transpose to form and dignity.

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,

And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” (Act I, Scene I, 227–235)

(Act 1, Scene 1) (Helena)

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!” (Act III, Scene ii, 115)

(Act 3, Scene 2) (Puck)

“If we offend, it is with our good will.

That you should think, we come not to offend,

But with good will. To show our simple skill,

That is the true beginning of our end.

Consider then we come but in despite.

We do not come as minding to contest you,

Our true intent is. All for your delight

We are not here. That you should here repent you,

The actors are at hand and by their show

You shall know all that you are like to know.” (Act V, Scene I, 108–117)

(Act 5, Scene 1) (Peter Quince)

“The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst

are no worse, if imagination amend them.” (Act V, Scene I, 211–212)

(Act 5, Scene 1) (Theseus)

“More strange than true: I never may believe

These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.

Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,

Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend

More than cool reason ever comprehends.” (Act 1, Scene I, 3–7)

(Act 1, Scene 1) (Theseus)