Puck to use it on Demetrius, referring to him as an Athenian man because he doesn’t know his name. Puck agrees.

After Titania’s fairy servants sing her to sleep, Oberon sneaks up and puts the flower’s juice on her eyes. He leaves, and Hermia and Lysander enter, tired from their escape together. They rest, but Hermia asks him not to sleep right by her.

Puck comes upon them, mistaking Lysander for the Athenian man Oberon told him about. He uses the flower on Lysander and sneaks away. Demetrius passes through, running from Helena. She grows tired from her chase and falls behind.

Lysander wakes to see Helena and falls in love with her. She thinks he’s mocking her and leaves, but Lysander gives chase. When Hermia wakes, alone, she is scared from a nightmare and wonders why Lysander is gone. She goes to find him.

At the start of Act III, Bottom, Quince, Snout, Starveling, Snug, and Flute meet in the woods to practice the play. Puck, unseen, sneaks up on them and watches their rehearsal. Bottom briefly leaves, and when he returns, he has a donkey’s head, courtesy of Puck. The others run away from him. Bottom thinks they’re playing a trick on him to make him look foolish. To show that he’s unaffected by the other craftsmen’s behavior, Bottom starts to sing.

Titania, hearing him, wakes up and falls in love with him. She summons her fairies—Cobweb, Peas-Blossom, Moth, and Mustard-seed—to dote on Bottom and bring him to her bower.

Puck reports back to Oberon about his shenanigans with the flower. They hide as Hermia and Demetrius enter. She accuses him of killing Lysander, but he denies it. She goes off to look for Lysander, and Demetrius falls asleep.

Oberon chides Puck for using the flower on the wrong Athenian man, saying he ruined true love by making false love true. He orders Puck to fetch Helena and puts the flower’s juice on Demetrius himself.

Lysander and Helena show up. He tries to convince her of his love for her, but she reminds him that he has already made a vow to Hermia. Demetrius, waking, sees her and declares his love. She believes he, too, is mocking her and ridicules both of them.

Hermia comes upon them. She asks Lysander why he left, and he says he doesn’t love her, to which she responds with disbelief. Helena thinks all three of them are conspiring against her.

Lysander and Demetrius argue about who loves Helena more while Hermia turns on Helena and threatens violence. Helena entreats the men to protect her and confesses that she told Demetrius of Hermia’s plan to escape with Lysander. The men leave to fight over Helena. Helena runs away to escape Hermia, but Hermia leaves, too.

Oberon orders Puck to veil the night in fog and transform his voice to confuse the men so that they stop fighting. He tells Puck to crush an herb into Lysander’s eyes. Once he falls asleep, the herb will remove the love spell and restore his love for Hermia. Oberon makes plans to go to Titania, ask for her pageboy, and, once she hands him over, rid her of her love for the ass-headed Bottom. He leaves.

Lysander returns, looking for Demetrius. Puck, despite his own amusement at the chaos, obeys Oberon by changing his voice to sound like Demetrius’s, thereby tricking Lysander to follow him. He uses the same trick on Demetrius, making sure the two men don’t run into each other.

When Lysander returns, tired from having unsuccessfully chased Puck’s disguised voice, he falls asleep. Puck, pretending to be Lysander, returns with Demetrius in tow. Demetrius, exhausted, also falls asleep. Separately, Helena and Hermia arrive and also fall asleep. Puck puts the herb on Lysander’s eyes, declaring that all will now be well.

Act IV begins with the return of Titania and Bottom while the Athenians rest. Oberon lurks, unseen, behind them. Titania’s fairy servants dote on Bottom at Titania’s bidding. Titania and Bottom fall asleep together, and the fairy attendants leave.

Oberon tells Puck that he successfully convinced Titania to give up her pageboy. Because of this, he uses herbs to break the love-spell and wake her. He tells Puck to undo the spell on Bottom. Titania thinks her infatuation with Bottom was a dream, but she sees Bottom sleeping near her and is confused. Titania calls up music to keep Bottom asleep. Oberon declares that the “pairs of faithful lovers” shall be wed. He and Titania leave.

Theseus enters with Hippolyta, Egeus, his servants, and his hounds, for he intends to go hunting. The group stumbles upon the young Athenians and wakes them. Lysander doesn’t remember how he got into the forest but confesses that he and Hermia were going to run away. This angers Egeus, but Demetrius says he no longer wants Hermia because he loves Helena.

The hunt forgotten, Theseus says the couples will be married. He goes with Hippolyta, Egeus, and the servants to oversee the preparation of a feast. The Athenians feel like the entire night was one long dream. Though they are somewhat bewildered, they follow the others. Bottom awakens, also thinking that he has had a strange dream.

At Quince’s house, the players wonder where Bottom is. They are sad because without him they can’t go on with the play, which they hope to profit from. Bottom manages to arrive in time but doesn’t explain where he’s been, because he deems it too strange. He tells the players to get ready to perform.

In Act V, Hermia, Lysander, Helena, and Demetrius arrive at the palace. Theseus calls Philostrate, his master of revels, who gives him a list of potential entertainment. Theseus chooses to see the craftsmen’s play. The play is about two star-crossed lovers, Pyramus and Thisbe, who meet untimely ends. Thisbe, scared by a lion, runs away and loses her mantle. Pyramus finds the mantle in the lion’s bloody jaws and assumes Thisby is dead. Out of grief, Pyramus kills himself. Thisbe finds his body and kills herself as well. The audience takes amusement in how poorly acted the play is.

The fairies arrive after the couples retire to bed. Puck vows not to let anything, even a mouse, disturb the house where the lovers lie. Oberon and Titania sing and dance to bless the house, and Oberon orders the fairies to go to each bedchamber and bless each couple. Puck ends the play with a short monologue, hoping the audience has not been offended by the play. He then suggests that if the play has offended, it may be nothing more than a dream.