Important Quotes of AMND

Previously I explored the themes and motives of AMND, if you have not read that section I suggest you do so before reading this. You can find it here.

In this section I have very "conservatively" selected quotes from the play for each theme. Learning quotes thematically is a very good way of revision, so I suggest you do the same!

Love’s Difficulty

Lysander I.I

The course of true love never did run smooth.

NOTE – opening up the conflicts of the play and the potential obstacles facing them.

Helena I.I

Love can transpose to form and dignity.

Love looks not with eyes, but with the mind;

And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

NOTE – linking love and imagination together. Highlighted in linking “mind” and “blind” in rhyming couplet. There is a remarkable maturity of insight in what she says, but ironically cannot correct her own love’s folly.  This is linked to a song from The Merchant of Venice:

“It is engendered in the eyes,

With gazing fed; and fancy dies

In the cradle where it lies.”

Bottom III.I

And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays

NOTE – speaking in plain prose, but speaks reason and the line which summarizes the entire conflict of the play, thereby satisfying the role of the “Shakespearean fool” by appearing intuitively wise.

Magic

Egeus I.I

This man hath bewitch’d the bosom of my child.–

NOTE – “bewitch’d” creates a sense of witchcraft/supernatural, introducing audience to world of the fairies. “my” indicates possession, and overall this line is very patronising to Hermia as if she has no control over her emotions.

Oberon II.I

Fetch me that flower; the herb I showed thee once.

The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid

Will make or man or woman madly dote

On the next live creature that it sees.

NOTE – direct command to Puck, showing supernatural artificialty of love potion-produced love

Robin II.I

Neighing in likeness of a filly foal;

And sometimes lurk I in a gossip’s bowl

NOTE – rhyming couplets, anapaestic pentameter gives it jaunty, mischievous rhythm and sense of ethereal

Robin III.I

I’ll follow you, I’ll lead you about a round,

Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier.

Sometimes a horse I’ll be, sometime a hound,

NOTE – language becomes less formulaic and more threatening, hinting at Robin’s potential to be malevolent as well as benevolent. Still speaks in verse, other-worldliness maintained despite interaction with mortals.

Robin V.I

Now are frolic. Not a mouse

Shall disturb this hallowed house.

I am sent with broom before

To sweep the dust behind the door.

NOTE – in Elizabethan folklore the Puck would “sweep” with a “broom” as a benevolent sprite in interaction with humans. “broom” has been interpreted as exorcism of potential tragic outcome, so that reconciliation and marriage may be blessed and rid of any omens.

Oberon IV.I

And, gentle Puck, take this transforméd scalp

From off the head of this Athenian swain,

NOTE – magic, showing how all Titania saw was false.

Dreams

Hermia II.II

Ay me, for pity. What a dream was here?

Lysander, look how I do quake with fear.

Methought a serpent ate my heart away,

And you sat smiling at his cruel prey.

NOTE – Heroic couplets, cementing her contrast between dream and reality. But final line catalectic, giving room of ambiguity as to whether dream and reality blur?

Oberon III.II

When they next wake, all this derision

Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision.

NOTE – in catalectic iambic pentameter with rhyming couplet, ethereal other-worldly quality of the fairies, spell-like form, describing drug effect. Their experiences become dreams which they learn from, but don’t need explanation.

Bottom IV.I

I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream past the wit of man to say what dream it was.

NOTE – in prose to show in class system he is separate from Athenians and fairies. Dream can be his imagination, source of theatrical inspiration. Like Athenians, his experience becomes a dream, as artificial/false as what brought about Titania’s love for him.

Theseus V.I

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet

Are of imagination all compact.

NOTE – blank verse creates sense of formality. Criticising imagination/dreams as false, because they transcend reason. Highlights how he is still stuck in the Urban World and trapped within boundaries of reason. Ironic because reason is what caused conflict in main narrative, and dreams/imagination of the Green World is what resolved them.

Robin V.I

That you have but slumbered here,

While these visions did appear;

And this weak and idle theme,

No more yielding but a dream,

NOTE – catalectic trochaic tetrameter to create ethereal other-worldly quality of a spell, as if he’s lulling the audience out of a sleeping spell. Bringing us into reality through direct address, the play itself becomes a dream that we have been immersed into believing it to be reality. Highlights failure of the mechanicals to achieve the same immersion. “visions” = pleasant illusions of the play

Contrast

Quince I.II

Marry, our play is The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe

NOTE – contradictory title of “Lamentable Comedy” is clarification that despite tragic undertones of AMND, it is to be treated as a comedy. The play serves to show the potential tragic outcome of AMND that is avoided through reconciliation.

Oberon and Titania II.I

Tarry, rash wanton, am I not thy lord?

Then I must be thy lady. But I know

NOTE – each distinguish their own roles in the relationship. Oberon tries to assert male authority over her but she remains defiant, replying to him in blank verse to finish off his line.

Theseus V.I

“Merry” and “tragical”? “Tedious” and “brief”?

NOTE – paradoxical nature of the play causes disbelief, highlighting problems of amateur theatre troupes

Love

Theseus I.I

Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword

And won thy love, doing thee injuries,

NOTE – “sword” and “won” indicate militarism to demonstrate male dominance. “won” her love forcing her into submission. “sword” may also be phallic once again showing male dominance.

Egeus I.I

This man hath bewitch’d the bosom of my child.–

NOTE – “bewitch’d” creates a sense of witchcraft/supernatural, introducing audience to world of the fairies. “my” indicates possession, and overall this line is very patronising to Hermia as if she has no control over her emotions.

Lysander I.I

The course of true love never did run smooth.

NOTE – opening up the conflicts of the play and the potential obstacles facing them.

Helena II.I

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

Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me.

NOTE – misogynistic presentation of Helena with masochistic undertones, demonstrating her unswerving devotion to Demetrius. Stresses on plosive “beat” and sibilance of “spaniel” “spurn” and “strike”

Oberon II.I

Fetch me that flower; the herb I showed thee once.

The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid

Will make or man or woman madly dote

On the next live creature that it sees.

NOTE – direct command to Puck, showing supernatural artificialty of love potion-produced love

Titania III.I

Mine ear is much enamoured of thy note;

So is mine eye enthrallèd to thy shape;

And thy fair virtue’s force perforce doth move me

On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.

NOTE – her change to blank verse shows she is interacting with the mortal world, although the final rhyming couplet is unusual, perhaps to suggest she cannot fully transcend to that world. Comedy arises from the fact that his “note” and “shape” are conventionally unattractive.

Titania IV.I

My Oberon, what visions have I seen!

Methought I was enamoured of an ass.

NOTE – “visions” shows artificiality of being “enamoured”

Marriage

Theseus I.I

Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword

And won thy love, doing thee injuries,

But I will wed thee in another key,

NOTE – “sword” and “won” indicate militarism to demonstrate male dominance. “won” her love forcing her into submission. “sword” may also be phallic once again showing male dominance.

Theseus IV.I

Egeus, I will overbear your will,

For in the temple by and by with us

These couples shall eternally be knit.

NOTE – the modal verb “shall” shows how Theseus asserts his own authority over the Athenian law and overrules Egeus. Maintaining sense of patriarchal authority, but in New World this is to reverse patriarchal constraints. “eternally” shows infinity of marriage and cements the importance of marriage in the play.

Oberon IV.I

And bless it to all prosperity.

There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be

Wedded with Theseus, all in jollity.

NOTE – “prosperity” is the fairies’ blessing of fertility, which was a real issue for Elizabethans. Three pairs “wedded” shows reconciliation and consummation of true “faithful” love.

Titania V.I

Now until the break of day

Through this house each fairy stray.

To the best bride bed will we,

Which by us shall blessed be,

NOTE – catalectic trochaic tetrameter & rhyming couplets show harmony and other-worldliness and power, which while uniting them was also the source of their turbulent conflict. This signifies love’s renewal after a breach in their long-standing relationship.

Appearance and Reality

Hermia II.II

Ay me for pity! What a dream was here!

Lysander, look how I do quake with fear.

Methought a serpent ate my heart away,

And you sat smiling at his cruel prey.

NOTE – Heroic couplets, cementing her contrast between dream and reality. But final line catalectic, giving room of ambiguity as to whether dream and reality blur?

Oberon III.II

When they next wake, all this derision

Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision.

NOTE – in catalectic iambic pentameter with rhyming couplet, ethereal other-worldly quality of the fairies, spell-like form, describing drug effect. Their experiences become dreams which they learn from, but don’t need explanation.

Puck IV.I

And, gentle Puck, take this transforméd scalp

From off the head of this Athenian swain,

NOTE – magic, showing how all Titania saw was false.

Theseus V.I

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,

Are of imagination all compact

NOTE – blank verse creates sense of formality. Criticising imagination/dreams as false, because they transcend reason. Highlights how he is still stuck in the Urban World and trapped within boundaries of reason. Ironic because reason is what caused conflict in main narrative, and dreams/imagination of the Green World is what resolved them.

Theseus V.I

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

NOTE – apparently this has much to do with the paramaterial Phantasy, the “bodies forth” into “airy nothing” is both material and immaterial, and thereby paradoxical. This also reflects the nature of passionate love, and how lovers can see false images and believe them to be true. The lover can only see beauty in the one they love even if they are ugly in both appearance and personality (Demetrius much?)

Order and Disorder

Titania II.I

And thorough this distemperature we see

The seasons alter; hoary-headed frosts

Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,

NOTE – reference to “distemperature” means disorder in nature, the “seasons” are controlled by the moon which is not happy, lack of fulfilment of fertility? Shows limitations of the fairies power. Blank verse indicates seriousness of this speech and lack of intimacy.

Titania II.I

And this same progeny of evils comes

From our debate, from our dissension

We are their parents and original.

NOTE – introduces threat of malevolence, forces which neither Oberon nor Theseus can contain

Oberon III.II

And then I will her charmèd eye release

From monster’s view, and all things shall be peace.

NOTE – “monster’s” reference to Bottom? “peace” = restoration of new order. Heroic couplet cements this reconciliation while giving supernatural quality.

Lysander III.II

Come, thou gentle day;

For if but once thou show me thy grey light,

I’ll find Demetrius, and revenge this spite.

NOTE – reference to morning “gentle day” “grey light”, semantic field of soft language to show the lovers moving into the “New World” of reform

The Moon

Theseus I.I

O! methinks how slow

This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires

NOTE – blank verse indicating formality and nobility. “old moon” represents fertility, fearing that Hippolyta’s fertility is waning the more they wait. “desires” are his sexual lust to satiate, still objectifying Hippolyta as a means for his satisfaction.

Hippolyta I.I

And then the moon, like to a silver bow

New bent in heaven, shall behold the night

Of our solemnities.

NOTE – moon imagery “thematic component” towards reconciliation of natural love, suggests Hippolyta doesn’t love Theseus but acquiesces to marriage because she has no choice. “silver bow” is a militaristic symbol, aligned with her Amazonian warrior presentation from Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale.

Theseus I.I

To live a barren sister all your life

Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon

NOTE – “moon” becomes a cold vacuum of passion, threat of waning fertility in becoming a “barren sister”

Sight

Helena I.I

Love can transpose to form and dignity.

Love looks not with eyes, but with the mind;

And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

NOTE – linking love and imagination together. Highlighted in linking “mind” and “blind” in rhyming couplet. There is a remarkable maturity of insight in what she says, but ironically cannot correct her own love’s folly.  This is linked to a song from The Merchant of Venice:

“It is engendered in the eyes,

With gazing fed; and fancy dies

In the cradle where it lies.”

Lysander II.II

Reason becomes the marshal to my will,

And leads me to your eyes, where I o-erlook

NOTE – trying to convince her that “reason” has led to his affections, the dramatic irony is that it is the love potion, which depends on sight, hence reference to “eyes” and “o-erlook”.

Play within a Play

Quince I.II

Marry, our play is The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe

NOTE – contradictory title of “Lamentable Comedy” is clarification that despite tragic undertones of AMND, it is to be treated as a comedy. The play serves to show the potential tragic outcome of AMND that is avoided through reconciliation.

Bottom V.I

And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,

That stand’st between her father’s ground and mine,

NOTE – humorous from inanimate object being given life, overuse of exclamation to highlight how amateur theatre troupes of Elizabethan era didn’t appreciate the subtleties of plays in their productions.

Theseus V.I

The best in this kind are but shadows, and the worst are no worse if imagination amend them.

NOTE – speaking in prose, language of mechanicals and nobility has been reversed to show rude discourse and lack of immersion.

Hippolyta V.I (in response to above)

It must be your imagination, then, and not theirs.

NOTE – replies in prose which in this instance suggests intimacy as usually only family speak in prose. But she shows defiance in refuting Theseus’ statement which could suggest discord in their marriage. But Theseus has the final word, maintaining the patriarchal society

Men and Women

Theseus I.I

O! methinks how slow

This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires

NOTE – blank verse indicating formality and nobility. “old moon” represents fertility, fearing that Hippolyta’s fertility is waning the more they wait. “desires” are his sexual lust to satiate, still objectifying Hippolyta as a means for his satisfaction.

Theseus I.I

Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword

And won thy love, doing thee injuries,

NOTE – “sword” and “won” indicate militarism to demonstrate male dominance. “won” her love forcing her into submission. “sword” may also be phallic once again showing male dominance.

Egeus I.I

I beg the ancient privilege of Athens:

As she is mine, I may dispose of her,

NOTE – “mine” is possessive language, objectifying Hermia who has no say in her fate, must submit to her father’s will as male authority or face death or nunnery. “dispose of her” also indicates she means little as a woman.

Theseus I.I

To you your father should be as a god,

One that composed your beauties, yea, and one

NOTE – this belief is dictated by male authority as well, indicating patriarchy. No mention of mother in this role, upholding notion of parental and male authority.

Helena I.I

Pursue her, and for this intelligence

If I have thanks it is a dear expense.

But herein mean I to enrich my pain,

To have his sight thither and back again.

NOTE – heroic couplets shows her conviction in pursuing Demetrius at the sacrifice of her and Hermia’s friendship.

Oberon and Titania II.I

Tarry, rash wanton, am I not thy lord?

Then I must be thy lady. But I know

NOTE – each distinguish their own roles in the relationship. Oberon tries to assert male authority over her but she remains defiant, replying to him in blank verse to finish off his line.

Demetrius II.I

But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.

NOTE – implied rape with “mischief” with the symbolism of the “wood” for danger and sexuality. But Demetrius doesn’t, retaining a sense of morality within a world of chaos.

Helena II.I

Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex.

We cannot fight for love, as men may do.

We should be wooed and were not made to woo.

NOTE – heroic couplets demonstrates her sincerity and conviction in highlighting this double standard. Presenting typical contemporary passive role of women in society.

Robin III.II

Then fate o’errules, that, one man holding troth,

A million fail, confounding oath on oath.

NOTE – men breaking their promises, echoes Hermia’s criticism of men

Helena III.II

Is all the counsel that we two have shared –

The sisters’ vows, the hours that we have spent

When we have chid the hasty-footed time

For parting us – O, is all quite forgot?

NOTE – has changed to blank verse from rhyming triplet, signal of progression in the play. Showing the breaking up of female friendship over hetero love.

Feminism

Egeus I.I

And what is mine my love shall render him.

And she is mine, all my right of her.

NOTE – repetition of “mine” and “my” demonstrates his possessiveness and her treatment as an object. “love” is treated economically as a transaction from one to another, regardless of actual emotion. The men dictate who she will marry, as he has a “right” to her as her parental and male authority.

Helena II.I

Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex.

We cannot fight for love, as men may do.

We should be wooed and were not made to woo.

NOTE – heroic couplets demonstrates her sincerity and conviction in highlighting this double standard. Presenting typical contemporary passive role of women in society.

Demetrius II.I

But I shall do thee mischief in the wood

NOTE – “mischief” has sexual connotations, the wood is typically symbolic of danger but also sexuality. This implies the threat of rape, which many woman were faced with in Elizabethan society.

Stage Directions

Enter from one side, OBERON…and, from the other side, TITANIA

NOTE – there is no time marker on their entrances, just as to where they enter from, giving no indication of one entering before the other. This creates a sense of equality among the two.

Hermia II.II

Nay, good Lysander: for my sake, my dear,

Lie further off yet: do not lie so near

NOTE – she does not submit to his will (presumably to have sex with her) and holds onto her chastity, despite having supposedly escaped the reach of Athenian law. This either shows her to be defiant and stands up for herself, or she upholds the very social constraints placed on her as a woman.

But remember, it’s not enough simply to regurgitate quotes. The Shakespeare exam is heavily weighted on AO2: your ability to analyse language. This means metre, rhyme scheme, metaphors, imagery, semantic fields, etc. So make sure you learn quotes that you can pick apart in the exam as opposed to one line where there’s a limited range of linguistic exploration to be made!