SOURCE: "The Harmony and Instrumentation of Fairyland," in Oberon 's Mazéd World, Louisiana State University Press, 1977, pp. 27-50.

In the following excerpt, Herbert investigates Elizabethan attitudes to the supernatural elements present in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

When two actors tripped lightly onto a stage still thudding with the tread of Quince, Bottom, and their prose-speaking friends, we knew from the first line, which told us we were among spirits, that these are not ghosts, devils, or witches, because they do not frighten. Nor are they angels, because they do not invite reverence. They must be fairies. For a brief while, in a condition seldom experienced at a Shakespeare play, we did not know where on the green earth we were. England, perhaps? That we were on the earth was clear enough, for the First Fairy goes on feet, "Over hill, over dale." Details of the conflict agitating...