Oberon grasping the herb says:
"I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows
Where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows;
Quite over-canopied with blooming woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine;
There sleeps Titania, sometime of the night
Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight,
And with this juice I'll streak her eyes
To make her full of hateful fantasies.
And take thou some of it, and seek through this grove;
A sweet Athenian lady is in love
With a disdainful youth; anoint his eyes;
But do it, when the next thing he espies
May be the lady."
Titania enters with her fairy train and orders them to sing her to sleep, and be gone.
Oberon finds his queen sleeping and squeezes some of the love juice on her eyelids, saying:
"What thou see'st when thou dost awake
Do it for thy true love take;
Love and languish for his sake;
When thou makest, it is thy dear,
Wake when some vile thing is near."
Lysander and Hermia wander in the woods, lost and tired, and sink down to rest. He says:
"One turf shall serve as pillow for us both,
One heart, one bed, two bosoms and one troth!"
Puck finds the lovers asleep, and says to Lysander:
"Churl, upon thy eyes I throw,
All the power that this charm doth owe,
When thou wakest, let love forbid
Sleep his seat on thy eyelid."
Puck finds Bottom in the woods, rehearsing the play for the marriage of Theseus, and translates the weaver into an ass, with a desire for love. He wanders near the flowery bed where Queen Titania sleeps.