Enter [TITANIA, BOTTOM] and FAIRIES, and [OBERON] behind them.

TITANIA         Come sit thee down upon this flowery bed

While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,

And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,

And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.

BOTTOM        Where’s Peaseblossom?

PEASEBLOSSOM        Ready.

BOTTOM        Scratch my head, Peaseblossom. Where’s Monsieur Cobweb?

COBWEB        Ready. (4.1.1-9)

Bottom and Titania may have been in her bower at the back of the stage throughout the preceding scene, but they can also re-enter here, with Titania’s fairy attendants. (That these fairies might be played by children is suggested by their very basic and formulaic lines; they answer to their names and that’s about it.) Titania establishes an atmosphere of languid yet ecstatic intimacy with her opening quatrain: come sit thee down upon this flowery bed—the bank where the wild thyme blows and then some, and here emphatically a bed—while I thy amiable cheeks do coy, oooo, I’m going to stroke your lovely cheeks, chuck you under the chin—and stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head—one does not think of donkeys as smooth and sleek, but to Titania, Bottom is clearly the smoothest of asses, well worthy of being garlanded with flowers—and kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy. Asses’ ears are of course their most ridiculous and recognisable feature, but Titania loves them, caresses them, kisses their hairy tips.  Bottom is her gentle joy, and that can ring true, this baffled but benign newcomer who appears to be accepting of, and delighted by, everything that’s happening to him. (Who wouldn’t be? hairy ears aside, perhaps.) Besides, Bottom has a healthy sense of entitlement, and if a fairy queen wants to kiss his ears, that’s only fair. They’re GREAT ears. Bottom has more pressing needs than musk roses, however, needs that even the fairy queen cannot meet: where’s Peaseblossom? Ready, says the fairy, perhaps with a touch of weariness; this sort of thing may have been going on for some time. Scratch my head, Peaseblossom. Good and hard. Ooooooo. And where’s Monsieur Cobweb? A more courtly, fanciful address for this fairy: ready! pipes Cobweb. What will be Bottom’s next request?