I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania some time of the night,
Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamell’d skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.
– William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 2, Scene 1. Oberon explains to Puck where he will find his wife, so that a trick can be played on her. He uses evocative language and mellifluous verse as he describes Titania sleeping place. This is one of the play’s most beautiful passages and has a dream-like quality about it. The Fairy Queen’s bed of nature is an enchanting and tranquil woodland bower where exotic plants and wild flowers abound. The only sinister thing to disturb this tranquil picture is the reference to the snake. This is foreshadowing of the nasty revenge that Oberson is about to take on his Queen. That Titania is "Lull’d in these flowers" also foreshadows that the juice of a flower will be used to enchant Titania and others who sleep.