A Midsummer Night’s Dream: key quotation sheet (PDF)
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From the A Midsummer Night’s Dream study guide.
How to use this sheet
These are the 10 quotations from the A Midsummer Night’s Dream study guide, set out for revision. Part one gives each quotation with a plain-English reading and space for your own notes. Part two prints them again with a word missing from each line, so that you can test yourself.
- Read the quotation aloud twice. Sound helps memory more than staring does.
- In the note space, name one method (a device, a word choice, a feature of the verse) and the effect it has.
- Add one link: to a theme, to another moment in the text, or to a point of context.
- A day later, cover part one and complete part two from memory.
Part one: the quotations
Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword
Theseus · Act 1, Scene 1
And won thy love doing thee injuries,
Plain English: I courted you by conquering you, and won your love by harming you.
Method and effect:
Links to:
As she is mine, I may dispose of her,
Egeus · Act 1, Scene 1
Plain English: She belongs to me, so I can do what I like with her.
Method and effect:
Links to:
The course of true love never did run smooth.
Lysander · Act 1, Scene 1
Plain English: True love has always met with obstacles.
Method and effect:
Links to:
Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind;
Helena · Act 1, Scene 1
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
Plain English: Love sees what the mind imagines, not what is there, which is why Cupid is shown blind.
Method and effect:
Links to:
And this same progeny of evils comes
Titania · Act 2, Scene 1
From our debate, from our dissension;
We are their parents and original.
Plain English: All these disasters are the offspring of our quarrel; we are their cause.
Method and effect:
Links to:
I am your spaniel, and, Demetrius,
Helena · Act 2, Scene 1
The more you beat me I will fawn on you.
Plain English: I am your dog; the worse you treat me, the more I will adore you.
Method and effect:
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And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays.
Bottom · Act 3, Scene 1
Plain English: To be honest, reason and love do not have much to do with each other these days.
Method and effect:
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Lord, what fools these mortals be!
Robin · Act 3, Scene 2
Plain English: How foolish human beings are.
Method and effect:
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The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Theseus · Act 5, Scene 1
Are of imagination all compact.
Plain English: Madmen, lovers and poets are all made entirely of imagination.
Method and effect:
Links to:
If we shadows have offended,
Robin · Act 5, Scene 1
Think but this and all is mended:
That you have but slumbered here
While these visions did appear.
Plain English: If our play has displeased you, pretend you were asleep and dreamed it.
Method and effect:
Links to:
Part two: test yourself
Fill each gap from memory, then check against part one. Mark the ones you missed and come back to them tomorrow.
, I wooed thee with my sword
Theseus · Act 1, Scene 1
And won thy love doing thee ,
As she is mine, I may of her,
Egeus · Act 1, Scene 1
The of true love never did run smooth.
Lysander · Act 1, Scene 1
Love not with the eyes but with the mind;
Helena · Act 1, Scene 1
And is winged Cupid painted blind.
And this same of evils comes
Titania · Act 2, Scene 1
From our debate, from our ;
We are their parents and .
I am your spaniel, and, ,
Helena · Act 2, Scene 1
The more you beat me I will fawn on you.
And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company nowadays.
Bottom · Act 3, Scene 1
Lord, what fools these be!
Robin · Act 3, Scene 2
The , the lover, and the poet
Theseus · Act 5, Scene 1
Are of all compact.
If we shadows have ,
Robin · Act 5, Scene 1
Think but this and all is :
That you have but here
While these did appear.
Next steps
Turn three of these quotations into full paragraphs with the essay planner, and check your method against the close reading toolkit. For a small daily dose of the language, Daily Bard shows one passage each morning with a plain-English reading on the back of the leaf.
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