Can you recall cute but mischievous, impish, devilish characters you may have read about, heard about or seen on TV or in the movies? Evil Dick

from Big Brother 8

Oh yeah, Puck from The Real World: San Francisco . . . Remember him?

All of these characters can be described by the word “Puckish.”

Main Entry: puck·ish; Function: adjective; Meaning: Impish, whimsical

One of the most popular characters in English folklore of the last thousand years has been the faerie, goblin, devil or imp known by the name of Puck or Robin Goodfellow.

The Welsh called him Pwca, the Irish, Phouka, Pooka or Puca.

There’s even a ride at Busch Gardens where guests via an animated 3-D ride simulator travel on the back of a Puca,Called Corkscrew Hill

Robin Goodfellow is one of the faeries known as

hobgoblins but not like the cutesy Tinkerbell kinds.

Robin was a medieval nickname for the devil.

Robin, similar to many ancient Greek gods, was a “shape-shifter” (horses, cows, asse, eagles) and could make himself invisible.

Shakespeare said Robin Goodfellow was one of the many names for Puck, and several plays and ballads were written about him

Here doe begin the merryiests     Of Robin Good-fellow; I'de wish you for to reade this booke,     If you his pranks would know. But first I will declare his birth,     And what his mother was, And then how Robin merrily     Did bring his knacks to passe.

(found in a book of ballads from 1628 )

Latter in the same ballad Robin finds

out that his father is Oberon, a fairy king of the forest, and his

mother a pretty “lasse”, thus making

Puck a “changling” or child of a fairy and a mortal.

From his father, Puck is given the ability to both change his shape as well as that of others:

He oft would beg and crave an almes,     But take nought that they'd give: In severall shapes he'd gull the world     Thus madly did he live. Sometimes a cripple he would seeme,     Sometimes a souldier brave: Sometimes a fox, sometimes a hare;     Brave pastimes would he have. Sometimes an owle he'd seeme to be,     Sometimes a skipping frog; Sometimes a kirne, in Irish shape,    To leape ore mire or bog: Sometimes he'd counterfeit a voyce,     And travellers call astray,

Sometimes a walking fire he'd be,     And lead them from their way. Some call him Robin Good-fellow,     Hob-goblin or mad Crisp, And some againe doe tearme him oft,     By name of Will the Wispe; But call him by what name you list,     I have studied on my pillow, I think the best name he deserves     Is Robin the Good Fellow. At last upon a summer's night

He first did put the candles out,     And being in the dark, Some would he strike, and some would pinch,     And then sing like a lark.

Then Robin for to have the same     Did turn him to a beare; Straight at that sight the people all     Did run away for feare.

Unseene of all the company,   I eate their cakes and sip their wine;         And to make sport,         I fart and snort, And out the candles I doe blow;        The maides I kisse,        They shrieke, "Who's this?" I answer nought, but ho, ho, ho!

More swift than lightening can I flye,

In this William Blake Painting (1785), the character of

Puck (with hands waving) looks an awful lot like

Pan, the famous mischivious satyr from Greek mythology or a faun from Roman mythology

Here is a close-up of Paul Ruben’sDiana and Her Nymphs Surprised by Fauns (The Prado Museum, Madrid ) Notice what the faun is doing . . . Fauns and satyrs were known for being rude, crude, lusty, funny, scary and lastly . . .

hairy

And so, Puck has

a duel nature, as

did the satyrs and

fauns. They were

at once innocently

mischievous and also crude,

course, lusty and a nuisance.

Some ballads tell of Puck coming to women’s beds at night, much like an incubus. Other times he would make himself invisible at parties, pinch the ladies’ bottoms, snort, fart,and eat up all the goddies and cakes, and drink up all the wine.

Other tales have the little knave vexing travelers in the night, leading them into woods by lantern light then blowing out the flame leaving them frightened and lost.

As we read the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, keep these things inmind . . . In one tale, he helps a young couple

marry when the girl’s perverted and wicked uncle will not give his consent