No Fear Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Get this No Fear to go!
Act 3, Scene 2, Page 3
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The sun was not so true unto the day
As he to me. Would he have stolen away
From sleeping Hermia? I’ll believe as soon
This whole Earth may be bored, and that the moon
May through the center creep and so displease
Her brother’s noontide with th' Antipodes.
It cannot be but thou hast murdered him.
So should a murderer look, so dead, so grim.
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He was more
faithful to me than the sun is to the daytime. Would he have snuck away from me while I
was asleep? I’ll believe that when I believe that
there’s a hole through the center of the earth, and the
moon has passed all the way through to the other side. The only
possibility is that you’ve murdered him. A murderer
should look like you do, so pale and grim.
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DEMETRIUS
So should the murdered look, and so should I,
Pierced through the heart with your stern cruelty.
Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear,
As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere.
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DEMETRIUS
That’s how someone who’s been murdered
should look, and that’s how I look. You’ve
pierced me through the heart with your cruelty, and yet you, the
murderer, look as bright and clear as a star in the sky.
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HERMIA
What’s this to my Lysander? Where is he?
Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me?
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HERMIA
What does that have to do with my Lysander? Where is he? Oh, good
Demetrius, will you find him for me?
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DEMETRIUS
I had rather give his carcass to my hounds.
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DEMETRIUS
I would rather feed his corpse to my dogs.
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HERMIA
Out, dog! Out, cur! Thou drivest me past the bounds
Of maiden’s patience. Hast thou slain him then?
Henceforth be never numbered among men!
Oh, once tell true, tell true even for my sake—
Durst thou have looked upon him being awake,
And hast thou killed him sleeping? O brave touch!
Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?
An adder did it, for with doubler tongue
Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.
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HERMIA
Get out, dog! You’ve driven me to my wit’s
end. Did you kill him, then? From now on I won’t even
consider you a human being. Oh, just tell the truth for once. tell
the truth, if only for my sake.—Would you have even dared
to look at him when he was awake? And did you kill him while he was
sleeping? Oh, how brave of you! A snake could do that as easily as
you could. A snake did do it, because no snake ever had a more
forked, lying tongue than you have.
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DEMETRIUS
You spend your passion on a misprised mood.
I am not guilty of Lysander’s blood.
Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell.
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DEMETRIUS
You’re getting all worked up over a misunderstanding. I
didn’t kill Lysander. ?As far as I know, he’s
not even dead.
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HERMIA
I pray thee, tell me then that he is well.
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HERMIA
Then please tell me he’s all right.
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DEMETRIUS
An if I could, what should I get therefore?
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DEMETRIUS
If I told you that, what would I get out of it?
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