Editing Suspension of disbelief (section)

== Examples in literature ==
{{See also|Dramatic convention}}
Suspension of disbelief is sometimes said to be an essential component of live theater, where it was recognized by [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]], who refers to it in the Prologue to ''[[Henry V (play)|Henry V]]'': "make imaginary [[wikt:puissance|puissance]] [...] 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings [...] turning the accomplishment of many years into an hourglass". Poetry and fiction involving the supernatural had gone out of fashion to a large extent in the 18th century, in part due to the declining belief in witches and other supernatural agents among the educated classes, who embraced the rational approach to the world offered by the new science. [[Alexander Pope]], notably, felt the need to explain and justify his use of elemental spirits in ''[[The Rape of the Lock]]'', one of the few English poems of the century that invoked the supernatural.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Deutsch|first=Helen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u2WBnh1QS9IC&q=the+rape+of+lock+suspension+of+disbelief&pg=PA90|title=Resemblance & Disgrace: Alexander Pope and the Deformation of Culture|date=1996|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-76489-7|language=en}}</ref>