He found Titania giving orders to her fairies, how they were to
employ themselves while she slept. 'Some of you,' said her majesty,
'must kill cankers in the musk-rose buds, and some wage war with the
bats for their leathern wings, to make my small elves coats; and some
of you keep watch that the clamorous owl, that nightly hoots, come
not near me: but first sing me to sleep.' Then they began to sing this
song:

'You spotted snakes with double tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen
Newts and blind-worms do no wrong
Come not near our Fairy Queen.
Philomel, with melody
Sing in our sweet lullaby
Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby;
Never harm, nor spell, nor charm,
Come our lovely lady nigh;
So good night with lullaby.'


When the fairies had sung their queen asleep with this pretty lullaby,
they left her to perform the important services she had enjoined them.
Oberon then softly drew near his Titania, and dropped some of the
love-juice on her eyelids, saying:

'What thou seest when thou wake
Do it for thy true-love take.'


But to return to Hermia, who made her escape out of her father's