The wood — Titania anointed; Lysander redirected

Another part of the wood. Titania enters with her fairy train, asks them to sing her to sleep, and assigns sentries against bats and spiders. The fairies sing the famous lullaby — "you spotted snakes with double tongue, thorny hedgehogs, be not seen" — and Titania falls asleep on a flowery bed. The fairies depart, leaving one sentry. Oberon slips in alone, finds her sleeping, and squeezes the juice of the love-flower on her eyelids: "what thou seest when thou dost wake, do it for thy true love take. Love and languish for his sake — be it ounce, or cat, or bear, pard, or boar with bristled hair." He leaves.

Lysander and Hermia enter from another direction. They have been wandering the wood for hours, lost, and Hermia is exhausted. They agree to lie down and sleep until morning. Lysander wants to lie next to her; Hermia, gently, makes him keep his distance. They sleep some yards apart. Puck arrives, looking for the Athenian Oberon described. He finds Lysander, in Athenian dress, asleep on the ground with a young woman lying nearby, and assumes — reasonably wrong — that this is his target. He applies the juice and goes off to report.

Demetrius runs through, fleeing Helena. He disappears into the trees and she is left alone near the sleeping Lysander. She stumbles on him on the ground and wakes him, fearing he is hurt. Lysander opens his eyes and is instantly in love; he declares it in extravagant verse and runs after her when she flees, certain she is being mocked. Hermia wakes alone, from a nightmare in which a serpent ate her heart while Lysander watched. She calls for him. There is no answer. The mismatch is complete; the lovers are scattered through the wood.