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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