Quotes From "A Midsummer Nights Dream" By William Shakespeare

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: One sees more devils than vast hell can hold, That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic, Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; And as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name. William Shakespeare

I’ll follow thee and make a heaven of hell, To die upon the hand I love so well. William Shakespeare

Why should you think that I should woo in scorn? Scorn and derision never come in tears: Look, when I vow, I weep; and vows so born, In their nativity all truth appears. How can these things in me seem scorn to you, Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true? William Shakespeare

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: And, as I am an honest Puck, If we have unearned luck Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue, We will make amends ere long; Else the Puck a liar call; So, good night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends, And Robin shall restore amends. William Shakespeare

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 to 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.. William Shakespeare

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine. William Shakespeare

If there were a sympathy in choice, War, death, or sickness, did lay siege to it, Making it momentary 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. William Shakespeare

Lovers and madmen have such seething brains Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend More than cool reason ever comprehends. William Shakespeare

HIPPOLYTABut all the story of the night told over, And all their minds transfigured so together, More witnesseth than fancy’s images And grows to something of great constancy, But, howsoever, strange and admirable. William Shakespeare

Be as thou wast wont to be. William Shakespeare

Be as thou wast wont to be. See as thou wast wont to see. William Shakespeare

... and yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together now-a-days... William Shakespeare

Lord, what fools these mortals be! William Shakespeare

DEMETRIUSRelent, sweet Hermia: and, Lysander, yield Thy crazed title to my certain right. L Y S A N D E R You have her father's love, Demetrius;Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him. William Shakespeare

QUINCEFrancis Flute, the bellows-mender. F L U T E Here, Peter Quince.QUINCEFlute, you must take Thisby on you. F L U T E What is Thisby? a wandering knight? Q U I N C E It is the lady that Pyramus must love. F L U T E Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming. William Shakespeare

Either to die the death or to abjure For ever the society of men. Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires; Know of your youth, examine well your blood, Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice, You can endure the livery of a nun, For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd, To live a barren sister all your life, Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon. Thrice-blessed they that master so their blood, To undergo such maiden pilgrimage; But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd, Than that which withering on the virgin thorn Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness. William Shakespeare

Shall we their fond pageant see? Lord, what fools these mortals be! William Shakespeare

Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.– Joy, gentle friends! joy and fresh days of love Accompany your hearts! William Shakespeare

BOTTOMThere are things in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisby that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw a sword to kill himself; which the ladiescannot abide. How answer you that? S N O U T By'r lakin, a parlous fear. S T A R V E L I N G I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done. B O T T O M Not a whit: I have a device to make all well. Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem tosay, we will do no harm with our swords, and that Pyramus is not killed indeed; and, for the morebetter assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: this will put themout of fear. Q U I N C E Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall bewritten in eight and six. B O T T O M No, make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight. William Shakespeare

Are you sure/ That we are awake? It seems to me/ That yet we sleep, we dream William Shakespeare

Yet but three come one more. Two of both kinds make up four. Ere she comes curst and sad. Cupid is a knavish lad. Thus to make poor females mad. William Shakespeare

Weaving spiders, come not here, Hence, you long legged spinners, hence! Beetles black, approach not here, worm nor snail, do no offense. William Shakespeare

Get you gone, you dwarf, You minimus of hindering knotgrass made, You bead, you acorn! William Shakespeare

Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh, Your vows to her and me, put in two scales, Will even weigh, and both as light as tales. William Shakespeare

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. William Shakespeare

We will meet; and there we may rehearse mostobscenely and courageously. Shakespeare, Midsummer Night's Dream. Spoken by Bottom, Act I Sc. 2 William Shakespeare

Oh why rebuke you him that loves you so? / Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe. William Shakespeare

HERMIAGod speed fair Helena! whither away? H E L E N A Call you me fair? that fair again unsay. Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair! Your eyes are lode-stars; and your tongue's sweet air More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear, When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear. Sickness is catching: O, were favour so, Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go; My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye, My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody. Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated, The rest I'd give to be to you translated. O, teach me how you look, and with what art You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart. H E R M I A I frown upon him, yet he loves me still. H E L E N A O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill! H E R M I A I give him curses, yet he gives me love. H E L E N A O that my prayers could such affection move! H E R M I A The more I hate, the more he follows me. H E L E N A The more I love, the more he hateth me. H E R M I A His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine. H E L E N A None, but your beauty: would that fault were mine! . William Shakespeare

The course of true love never die run smooth William Shakespeare