Did people believe in fairies during the Renaissance?

Answer 1

Absolutely they did, and across most major cultures. The understanding of Faeries has changed over time however. In older times, they were often believed to be malevolent or cruel pranksters who would torment humans by pinching them or shooting them with "fairy darts". They would spoil the milk, lead travelers astray, or do otherwise precocious things, for reasons humans could only guess at (though there are a myriad of superstitions about what might irk a fairy).

Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, played a large part in redefining how the common people understood faeries. Titania and Oberon (the faerie Queen and King respectively) were the Renaissance version of today's Tinkerbell - completely fiction pulled from the imagination of the author. He portrayed them as having their own courtly politics that sometimes get crossed with humans, but not as being particularly cruel, so much as humorous in their pranks. More jovial and ultimately as somewhat friendly.

Another way to get an idea of how the Renaissance may have viewed the Fae, is to read The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser. Although it is an allegory to Queen Elizabeth and her court, there are reflections of the magical world therein.