There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;
And to that place the sharp Athenian law
Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me, then
Steal forth thy father’s house tomorrow night,
And in the wood a league without the town
(Where I did meet thee once with Helena
To do observance to a morn of May),
There will I stay for thee.
– William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. Lysander hatches a plan for his and Hermia’s escape to his aunt’s house away from Athens, where they can marry and the laws of Athens don’t apply. He tells her that if she loves him she should steal away from her father’s house and meet him in the woods the following night, so that they may elope. The mention of a place where Helena and Hermia used to spend time foreshadows Helena’s return to this spot in the next Act, where she will awaken the bewitched Lysander, who falls in love with Helena instead of Hermia. It also foreshadows Hermia’s plans to replace Helena in the enchanted Lysander’s affections.