The wood — Bottom translated; Titania wakes

Another part of the wood, very near Titania's flowery bed. The six mechanicals gather to rehearse. Bottom raises his usual problems. The lion will frighten the ladies; he will need a prologue. There must be moonlight, since Pyramus and Thisbe meet by moonlight; either they will leave a window open in the great chamber where they perform, or someone must come on stage with a bush and a lantern and play Moonshine. The wall is harder. They settle on Snout standing on stage with his fingers spread to make a chink. Quince calls them to begin.

The rehearsal proceeds. Puck, who has stumbled on the mechanicals and concluded they are "the shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort," decides to take a hand. When Bottom exits behind a thicket on his cue and reenters, his head has been transformed into a donkey's. He does not know it. His fellow actors do; they take one look and flee, screaming. Bottom, certain they are playing a joke on him, paces the clearing alone and decides to sing to keep up his courage. He sings — flatly, off-key.

In her bower a few feet away, Titania stirs at the sound. The juice of the flower is on her eyelids. She opens her eyes and sees Bottom. "What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?" she asks, in some of the play's most beautiful verse, and falls instantly, completely in love with him. Bottom, courteous as ever, accepts the situation with the imperturbability that is his nature. Titania summons her fairies — Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, Mustardseed — and instructs them to wait on him hand and foot. They will feed him apricots and dewberries; they will fan moonbeams from his sleeping eyes. He goes, asking politely after each fairy's paternity. The wood has rearranged its second couple.