ts abounded in his time. It was believed to be a night filled with magic, in which plants especially took on supernatural powers (Reynolds & Sawyer 513). Thus, it is a flower which Oberon uses to cast his amorous spells, and thus the four fairies attendant upon his wife, Queen Titania, are each named for a medicinal herb or creature (Reynold & Sawyer 517-518). Frazier tells us in The Golden Bough that Midsummer Night, or the summer solstice, was a time for celebratory sylvan bonfires, round which lovers would dance and over which they would leap to ensure fertility. A potent magic for good was connected with these festivals, and they appear to have persisted into the last century, being intimately tied to marriage and courtship (Frazier 622 et passim). For the most part, it seems that such wood spirits as fairies and brownies who were more like to sow discord and even ill health in the unborn than to bring harmony. It is therefore of the utmost significance that Shakespeare chose to make his fairies benevolent, as Oberon, their King, early makes clear.
...