Jonathan O'Neill’s Reviews > A Midsummer Night's Dream > Status Update
Jonathan O'Neill
is 25% done
HELENA
[...]
I am your spaniel, and Demetrius,
The more you beat me, I will fawn on you.
Use me but as your spaniel: spurn me, strike me,
Neglect me, loose me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
What worser place can I beg in your love
(And yet a place of high respect with me)
Than to be used as you use your dog?
Good lord, Helena, get ahold of yourself, woman!
— 12 hours, 20 min ago
[...]
I am your spaniel, and Demetrius,
The more you beat me, I will fawn on you.
Use me but as your spaniel: spurn me, strike me,
Neglect me, loose me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
What worser place can I beg in your love
(And yet a place of high respect with me)
Than to be used as you use your dog?
Good lord, Helena, get ahold of yourself, woman!
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Jonathan’s Previous Updates
Jonathan O'Neill
is 16% done
ROBIN How now, spirit, whither wander you?
FAIRY Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire,
I do wander everywhere
Swifter than the moon's sphere...
{cont.}
— Sep 16, 2026 06:01AM
FAIRY Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire,
I do wander everywhere
Swifter than the moon's sphere...
{cont.}
Jonathan O'Neill
is 14% done
BOTTOM Let me play the Lion too. I will roar that I will do any man’s heart good to hear me. I will roar that I will make the duke say, ‘Let him roar again, let him roar again.’
QUINCE And you should do it too terribly, you would fright the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek, and that were enough to hang us all.
ALL That would hang us, every mother’s son.
[cont...}
— Sep 14, 2026 06:31AM
QUINCE And you should do it too terribly, you would fright the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek, and that were enough to hang us all.
ALL That would hang us, every mother’s son.
[cont...}
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Jokes aside, Demetrius is a real son of a bitch for this. It's alleged by Lysander, earlier in the play, that Demetrius had slept with Helena and in that light, and the presumed social expectations of the time, Helena is probably trying to regain her virtue by courting Demetrius in the hopes that he'll marry her. This would somewhat explain her cringey desperation here.
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It's either that or he really is Demetrius with a capital "D" if you get my drift. I mean he did, supposedly "w[in] her soul" in that single liaison.
Oh dear, this is a very problematic passage indeed! I do wonder if this is a very twisted version of the make gaze perhaps?