Shakespeare, like many of his contemporaries, presented Faery as tiny, ephemeral, winged creatures that could sleep inside a curled flower. In purveying this notion to a global audience through centuries, Shakespeare contributed enormously to the (now) common literary tradition of teeny-tiny faeries a la Walt Disney.
This notion that faeries are ‘playful children’ angered author JRR Tolkein who subscribed to the medieval literary portrayal of the Fae where faery were normal-sized and heroic (cue the Elves of his Middle Earth).
Taken from The Great Courses’ Shakespeare: The Word and the Action