A Midsummer Night's Dream

Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.

HELENA You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant199;

But yet you draw not iron, for my heart

Is true as steel. Leave you201 your power to draw,

And I shall have no power to follow you.

DEMETRIUS Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair203?

Or rather do I not in plainest truth

Tell you I do not nor I cannot love you?

HELENA And even for that do I love thee the more.

I am your spaniel, and, Demetrius,

The more you beat me, I will fawn on you.

Use me but209 as your spaniel: spurn me, strike me,

Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave210,

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 do use your dog?

DEMETRIUS Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit,

For I am sick when I do look on thee.

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

DEMETRIUS You do impeach218 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 desert222 place

With the rich worth of your virginity.

HELENA Your virtue is my privilege: for that224

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,