OBERON                     Having once this juice,

I’ll watch Titania when she is asleep

And drop the liquor of it in her eyes.

The next thing then she, waking, looks upon,

Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,

On meddling monkey or on busy ape,

She shall pursue it with the soul of love.

And ere I take this charm from off her sight

(As I can take it with another herb),

I’ll make her render up her page to me.

But who comes here? I am invisible,

And I will overhear their conference.          (2.1.176-187)

And now Oberon reveals his dastardly plan, which Puck has sped off to put in motion: having once this juice—from the purple flower—I’ll watch Titania when she is asleep and drop the liquor of it in her eyes. YES. (He’s carefully describing the action and effects again, so that it can be both understood and anticipated by the audience.) The next thing then she, waking, looks upon, be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull—all savage, cruel—on meddling monkey or on busy ape—these are particularly associated with lust, sexual insatiability, or with ridiculousness—she shall pursue it with the soul of love. OH YES. She won’t be able to stop herself! She’ll be completely infatuated! And ere I take this charm from off her sight (as I can take it with another herb), so, good, there’s an antidote, this is also important for the audience to know, I’ll make her render up her page to me. That goal almost seems a sideshow now, it’s the prospect of humiliating his wife which Oberon seems more fixated on. But who comes here? Who’s this? Characters from one of the other plots, perhaps, now that all three groups have been introduced? I am invisible—he says with confidence, it sometimes gets a laugh, but it matters, that the audience is told that whoever is about to appear won’t be able to see him—and I will overhear their conference. I’m just going to hang around in the background and see what’s going on…