Oberon and Puck have been hidden on the side of the stage all during the time that the four lovers are quarreling. Oberon is angry and blames Puck. He rails that Puck is always causing trouble, either accidentally or on purpose. But Puck defends himself and reasserts that he had put the love-potion drops on Lysander’s eyes by mistake. Nevertheless, Puck is happy that he made this mistake; for he tells Oberon that he found the lovers’ fight to be “sport” (354). The word sport means entertainment. Puck is stating that the lovers’ quarrelling is amusing and entertaining. Puck thinks it is funny, and few people in Shakespeare’s theater would have disagreed with the little fairy.
Oberon orders Puck to follow Lysander and Demetrius into the woods and prevent them from hurting each other. He also orders Puck to make them tired and weary; and, once Lysander has fallen asleep, Puck is to put the antidote to the love potion in his eyes.
Oberon also casts a magic spell on the lovers so that …
When they next awake, all this derision
Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision. (371-72)
In other words, the lovers will think that their activities during the night were just part of a dream that has no meaning (fruitless). They will not think that the dream is worth any consideration, and they will be able to go on with their lives. In a way, Shakespeare may also be modestly referring to his own Dream – the Midsummer Night’s Dream – as an amusing inconsequential comedy.
Oberon also informs Puck that he will also go to Titania, take the Indian boy, and remove the spell from her eyes. Oberon (like the playwright who arranges the material in his drama) is thus in full control of the situation. He is like a force of fate that wishes to bring all troubles and vexations to an end. He wishes to bring peace (line 378). He is a benevolent force in the universe.
In Puck’s reply to Oberon, the mischievous fairy alludes to another supernatural creature – ghosts. Puck explains that he and Oberon must act quickly because the sun will rise soon, and the many ghosts who have been up for the night will be marching to the churchyards and graveyards to return to their places of burial (lines 379-88). Puck concludes that these spirits that walk the night must hide from the daylight because of their many “shames.” The ghosts that walk the night, then, are creatures that – when they were human – had committed horrible acts that caused them to feel guilt and shame in their post-mortal forms.
Oberon notes, though, that fairies are far different from ghosts: “we are spirits of another sort” (389). And the King of the Fairies even adds that he has often been out at dawn and been active in the early hours of the morning. However, Oberon agrees with Puck that they should act quickly and finish before sunrise. The fairies do not wish to be seen by humans.
The scene concludes with Puck carrying out the orders that Oberon had given him. The fairy leads the two Athenians through the fields, having each one think he is chasing the other when they are actually both chasing after Puck. Thus, neither Lysander nor Demetrius is hurt in the chase.