as your dog?
**DEMETRIUS:**
Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit, for I’ve heard that it’s possible to make one mad with too much love. But I do not want to be so cruel. You’ll not be a dog, but still follow me. The more you beat me, I will fawn on you. Use me but as your spaniel: spurn me, strike me, neglect me, lose me, only let me follow you. What worse place can I ask for in your love (and yet a place of high respect for me) than to be used as your dog?
**HELENA:**
For me to be a spaniel, to be used as your dog!
**DEMETRIUS:**
Fine, do not be mad at me. I will not harm you for your lack of love. I, Hermia, like every other man on this earth, are mortal and can mistake. You’re right, I blamed her and loved you; but don’t judge me harshly for my innocent mistake. The painted knit-brow beauties with deceptive words made to rob men of their souls have long plagued me with their false appearance. Therefore, I fear you, dear Helena, more than I love Hermia. For you don’t have that flattering evil where her black eyes from her own faults gleam like coal. But the anger of the gods is upon you, for, when I turn my back, scorn will follow me. Therefore, I am afraid of you. I’ll give you my fleece and my heart to hang on your pale, dry beard, and let you carry them around the world ten times, both for your honesty and deep love for me. But you have that special charm that turns my heart from any other. Please consider my infatuation a weakness instead of a insincere cruelty.
(Hermia enters.)
**HERMIA:**
Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse. My love, my life, my dear, the place is closed for you. Please respect my love, my life, my dear.
**HELENA:**
Oh, excellent! Sweet scorn! Silence while Hermia speaks! Do not laugh at me, for though she is something lower than myself, I still see her worthiness.
**HERMIA:**
If you have any pity, grace, or manners, you would not make me the only exception to your contempt. If you won’t be gentle, do not value me at all. If you treat me like a friend, dignify me with your jealousy for you made me your inheritance before making Demetrius yours. But purpose, courtesy, and respect can no longer hold you back. You’re free to hate me as if I were a dog, as you claim Demetrius sees you. But let not Hermia tread too near you, for he is unkind so only you deserve the unkindness of his love. But rest assured, the only woman here who could hate you as much as you dislike me is me; for the more you love her, the more she seems to hate you.
(Demetrius exits.)
**HERMIA:**
Thou, as you are beautiful, are beauty itself.
**HELENA:**
Ty, as you are virtuous, are virtue itself. I want to be so close to your life that your scorn will find its own grave in my breast, for I am sure you love me too much to let me die with it. What will you never rebuke me for?
**HERMIA:**
Never, Helena. If you are true and virtuous, those who should go away and miss her manners really leave with her.
**HELENA:**
You speak almost as a changeling child, sworn against all that inherit her qualities. If you choose not to fight demerits, love a tall person. Compared with large oaks, this canary tree has more character than you, and I cannot bear to love you.
**HERMIA:**
Ought I to talk that I may truly insult you in a single word?
**HELENA:**
No, no, full-figured, powerful, blue-eyed, beagle, bold, and untamable!
**HERMIA:**
I wouldn’t talk with you for no more than your own whatever you want!
**HELENA:**
And now, don’t have the spirit of any more oratory.
**HERMIA:**
I do not have more talent to play with my serious efforts.
**HELENA:**
Do good to be your mentor. Your judgment shouldn’t be too harsh.
**HERMIA:**
You’re not foolish enough to judge me by your looks. What’s your opinion?
**HELENA:**
That’s right. But it doesn’t matter. Do justice!
**HERMIA:**
Have you no misgivings?
**HELENA:**
None, save that you’re in your right to counter me.
**HERMIA:**
The evidence should be more thorough before we come to terms.
**HELENA:**
None but thickening circumstances and a hammer could break through such clear evidence.
**HERMIA:**
Proceed, then!
**HELENA:**
We require lawyers to manage this case, and we need the judge to think rightly of it.
**HERMIA:**
Yield. I come to my turn.
**HELENA:**
You have broken my resolve!
**HERMIA:**
I pledge.
**HELENA:**
I promise not to drink.
**HERMIA:**
Not when you can. You’re fooling me. Go on and explain. Don’t speak too loudly—I’ll recommend you.
**HELENA:**
And that you shouldn’t be discriminated against.
**HERMIA:**
This is certain! I say we’re two of the worst characters in the area. You must show appreciation, humility, and hope for our fate as it turns out!
**HELENA:**
God speed you! Good luck! Let it be!
**HERMIA:**
You say well and definitely!
(Helena and Hermia exit.)
**OBERON:**
Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, Puck!
**ROBIN:**
There’s a flower with a purple hue, just like the flavor of the maiden’s swain in love. Fetch it here. I’m almost familiar with what this flower does.
**OBERON:**
Sleep here on this bank. Find Helena on the ground, and engage her true eyes with bewitching fancy. When she wakes, let her feel rundown and despair, and assume the loved one will never return; and that there is no other love or better friend.
**ROBIN:**
Hurry up! I’ll put the juice on his eyes. In this same place, follow me straight away.
(Robin exits.)
**OBERON:**
Robin Goodfellow, take the sweet Athenian lady lying asleep, when you come to. You shall kill two people and one black man. Exit me!
(Oberon exits.)
(Enter Robin and Helena)
**HELENA:**
There is no potion that could remove the craving love of Demetrius. Would I die for not being able to love the one I could never deserve? The herb that’s supposed to go on eyes would help, but this supposed charm would surely not reach my lips.
**ROBIN:**
Then I’ll put the juice on his face. When his love wakes, let him see me as the lowest person on Earth. How mightily I would excuse myself, as Helena would ask for nothing more. It is difficult to be avoided. I’ll write down the plan.
**HELENA:**
My humor is full when I’m left alone. Now, Demetrius, come, my dear, and from Helena, if she loves me kindly, she sheds some blood. Oh, I now love these light spirits. Oh, good Puck! Take me apart to the woodland grove!
(They exit.)
(Enter Lysander and Helena)
**LYSANDER:**
Oh, why are we closer than Lysander, so much so that when she awakened, she found herself so angry?
**LYSANDER:**
And yet she’s a very lovely girl, her eyes more glittering than the previous night’s stars. So, he always turns his eyes from me in sadness.
**LYSANDER:**
Is she one of those little girls who can’t love us?
**LYSANDER:**
Well, I do see Helena is a beautiful girl, half as lovely as Hermia’s beauty, but she also has qualities that Hermia could never have. And she is wise enough to choose the scorning eyes of disdain.
**LYSANDER:**
It’s also wise to make him feel the same, and I will return to his favor.
(Enter Puck)
**PUCK:**
Near the old celestial goddess, the wood nymph lying asleep on yon bank; but the winged love, whose tie is my foster son, rises in non-dismissible anger as the sick girl lacerates when roused sleep.
**LYSANDER:**
What wicked Puck are you speaking of?
**PUCK:**
That same wicked Puck who makes sport of the nightbirds, misses the mark near at hand; the sweet prince of the birds targets a bed of Indian king. It shall stand unharmed vault until the provocation brings fiery king with invention flagging the runway.
**LYSANDER:**
From that land is everything, for love imparts practice, and nature does her duty where love is not.
**PUCK:**
The ancient undead, showing each other how plants differ from what they are not, marvel at the “king” as he tries to lay at assertion. Me-a busy messenger-echoes much of what’s already ready. I’ll strike him blind or deaf he’ll think he exists. It is surely true that every man may oppose the wit of this and receive my store vouchsafed.
(They exit.)
Sure, here's an adaptation of the script from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in prose format:
---
**Robin Goodfellow (Puck) enters from one side, and a Fairy enters from the other.**
**ROBIN:**
How are you, spirit? Where are you wandering?
**FAIRY:**
I wander over hills and dales, through bushes and briers, over parks and fences, through floods and fires. I travel everywhere, swifter than the moon’s path. I serve the Fairy Queen and spread dew on her orbs in the green fields. The tall cowslips are her attendants, their gold coats adorned with spots that are like rubies, fairy gifts. In those freckles, their scents reside. I need to find some dewdrops and hang a pearl in each cowslip’s ear. Farewell, mischievous spirit. I must go. Our queen and all her elves will be here soon.
**ROBIN:**
The King holds his revels here tonight. Be careful that the Queen does not come within his sight. Oberon is very angry because she has a lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king, as her attendant. She never had such a sweet changeling before. Jealous Oberon wants the child to be his knight, to follow him through the wild forests. But she keeps the boy, crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her joy. Now, they never meet in groves or green fields, by clear fountains or under the starlit sky, without quarreling, causing all their elves to hide in fear.
**FAIRY:**
Either I’m mistaken about your appearance and nature, or you’re that shrewd and mischievous sprite called Robin Goodfellow. Aren’t you the one who frightens village maidens, skims milk, sometimes grinds corn, makes the housewife's butter churn fail, makes the drink bear no froth, misleads night wanderers, laughing at their harm? Those who call you “Hobgoblin” and “sweet Puck,” you do their work, and they have good luck. Aren’t you that one?
**ROBIN:**
You speak correctly. I am that merry wanderer of the night. I jest to Oberon and make him smile when I trick a fat, well-fed horse into neighing like a young foal. Sometimes I hide in a gossip’s bowl in the form of a roasted crab, and when she drinks, I bob against her lips and pour ale on her withered chin. The wisest old woman, telling the saddest tale, sometimes mistakes me for a three-legged stool. Then I slip from under her, and she falls, crying “Tailor!” Then the whole crowd holds their sides and laughs, coughing and swearing they’ve never had a merrier hour. But step aside, fairy. Here comes Oberon.
**FAIRY:**
And here is my mistress. I wish he were gone!
**Oberon, the King of Fairies, enters from one side with his train, and Titania, the Queen, enters from the other side with hers.**
**OBERON:**
Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.
**TITANIA:**
What, jealous Oberon? Fairies, let’s leave. I have sworn off his bed and company.
**OBERON:**
Stay, rash one. Am I not your lord?
**TITANIA:**
Then I must be your lady. But I know when you have stolen away from Fairyland and sat all day, disguised as Corin, playing pipes of corn and singing love songs to amorous Phillida. Why are you here, from the farthest part of India, except to bless the marriage of your warrior love, the bouncing Amazon, to Theseus?
**OBERON:**
How can you shame me, Titania, by hinting at my relationship with Hippolyta, knowing I am aware of your love for Theseus? Did you not lead him through the night from Perigouna, whom he ravished, and make him break his faith with Aegles, Ariadne, and Antiopa?
**TITANIA:**
These are the forgeries of jealousy. Since the beginning of summer, we have not met on hills, in dales, forests, meadows, by clear fountains, or by the sea to dance to the whistling wind. Your quarrels have disturbed our sport. Therefore, the winds, piping to us in vain, have sucked up contagious fogs from the sea, which have fallen on the land, making every small river overflow. The ox has stretched his yoke in vain, the plowman has lost his labor, and the green corn has rotted before it could grow. The sheepfold stands empty in the flooded field, and crows are fat with diseased sheep. The nine-men’s-morris is filled with mud, and the mazes in the grassy meadows are indistinguishable. Human mortals lack their winter festivities. The moon, governess of floods, is pale with anger and washes the air, causing rheumatic diseases to abound. The seasons alter, and the world is confused by their changes. All this mischief comes from our debate and dissension. We are their parents and original cause.
**OBERON:**
Do you amend it, then. It lies with you. Why should Titania cross her Oberon? I only ask for a little changeling boy to be my henchman.
**TITANIA:**
Set your heart at rest. Fairyland shall not buy the child from me. His mother was a devoted follower of my order, and often sat with me on Neptune’s yellow sands, marking the traders on the sea. We laughed to see the sails swell with the wind. She, following with a graceful gait, would mimic the sails and fetch me trinkets. But she, being mortal, died giving birth to that boy, and for her sake, I rear him up. I will not part with him.
**OBERON:**
How long do you intend to stay in this wood?
**TITANIA:**
Perhaps until after Theseus’ wedding day. If you will join our dance and see our moonlight revels, come with us. If not, avoid me, and I will spare your haunts.
**OBERON:**
Give me that boy, and I will go with you.
**TITANIA:**
Not for your fairy kingdom. Fairies, away. We shall argue more if I stay longer.
(Titania and her fairies exit.)
**OBERON:**
Well, go your way. You shall not leave this grove until I torment you for this injury. My gentle Puck, come here. Do you remember when I sat on a promontory and heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back singing so harmoniously that the rude sea became calm, and certain stars shot madly from their spheres to hear the sea-maid’s music?
**ROBIN:**
I remember.
**OBERON:**
At that very time, I saw (though you could not), Cupid flying between the cold moon and the Earth, armed with his bow. He aimed at a fair vestal throned by the west and loosed his love-shaft, which should pierce a hundred thousand hearts. But I saw young Cupid’s fiery shaft quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon, and the imperial virgin passed on in maiden meditation, free from love. Yet, I noticed where the bolt of Cupid fell. It fell upon a little western flower, once milk-white, now purple with love’s wound, and maidens call it “love-in-idleness.” Fetch me that flower—the herb I showed you once. The juice of it, laid on sleeping eyelids, will make a man or woman madly dote on the next living creature they see. Fetch me this herb, and be here again before the leviathan can swim a league.
**ROBIN:**
I’ll circle the Earth in forty minutes.
(Robin exits.)
**OBERON:**
Once I have this juice, I’ll watch Titania while she is asleep and drop the liquor in her eyes. The next thing she sees, whether it be lion, bear, wolf, bull, monkey, or ape, she will pursue with the soul of love. And before I remove this charm from her sight (which I can do with another herb), I’ll make her give up her page to me. But who comes here? I am invisible, and I will overhear their conversation.
(Demetrius enters, followed by Helena.)
**DEMETRIUS:**
I do not love you; therefore, stop following me. Where is Lysander and fair Hermia? The one I’ll stay; the other hinders me. You told me they had stolen into this wood, and here I am, mad within this wood because I cannot find Hermia. Go away, and follow me no more.
**HELENA:**
You draw me, you hard-hearted magnet! But you do not draw iron, for my heart is true as steel. If you stop drawing me, I will have no power to follow you.
**DEMETRIUS:**
Do I entice you? Do I speak kindly to you? Or do I not, in plainest truth, tell you I do not, nor can, love you?
**HELENA:**
And for that very reason, I love you more. I am your spaniel, and, Demetrius, the more you beat me, the more I will fawn on you. Use me but as your spaniel: spurn me, strike me, neglect me, lose me; only let me follow you. What worse place can I ask for in your love (and yet a place of high respect for me) than to be used
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