You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart.193
Her. I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.
Hel. O! that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill.
Her. I give him curses, yet he gives me love.
Hel. O! that my prayers could such affection move.197
Her. The more I hate, the more he follows me.
Hel. The more I love, the more he hateth me.
Her. His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.
Hel. None, but your beauty: would that fault were mine!201
Her. Take comfort: he no more shall see my face;
Lysander and myself will fly this place.
Before the time I did Lysander see,204
Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me:
O! then, what graces in my love do dwell,
That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell.
Lys. Helen, to you our minds we will unfold.
To-morrow night, when Phœbe doth behold209
Her silver visage in the wat'ry glass,
Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,—
A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal,—
Through Athens' gates have we devis'd to steal.
Her. And in the wood, where often you and I
Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie,
Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,216
There my Lysander and myself shall meet;
And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,
To seek new friends and stranger companies.
Farewell, sweet playfellow: pray thou for us;
And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!221
206, 207 Cf. n.
209 Phœbe: the moon
212 still: always
215 faint: pale (?), faintly perfumed (?)
216 counsel: inmost thought
