What were dragons like in Shakespeare's lifetime?

There are dozens of references to dragons throughout Shakespeare's plays, describing them as fierce, wrathful, lonely, and of course---winged and quite large.  

In Shakespeare's England, dragons were considered real creatures who roamed the Earth, and they had very specific attributes associated with them that Shakespeare takes full advantage of in his works. However, as an observer from over 400 years away from this part of his culture, you might miss some of the significance of his references without a guide into exactly what the perspective was on dragons when Shakespeare was putting them on stage.  

Here to travel back with us into Tudor and early Jacobean England to explore the world of dragons and their impact on the world of men, is our guest and dragon historian, Rachel Sweeney.