From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Character in A Midsummer Night's Dream
Puck
, or
Robin Goodfellow
, is a character in
William Shakespeare
's play,
A Midsummer Night's Dream
.
Based on the
Puck
of
English mythology
and the
puca
of Celtic mythology,
[1]
[2]
Puck is a mischievous
fairy
,
sprite
, or
jester
. He is the first of the main fairy characters to appear, and he significantly influences events in the play. He delights in pranks such as replacing
Nick Bottom
's head with that of an
ass
.
Appearances in the play
[
edit
]
The audience is introduced to Puck in 2.1:
FAIRY:
Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are you not he
That frights the maidens of the villagery;
Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the
quern
,
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;?
And sometime make the drink to bear no
barm
;
Mislead night wanderers, laughing at their harm?
Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
You do their work, and they shall have good luck:?
Are you not he?
PUCK:
?
Fairy, thou speak'st aright;
I am that merry wanderer of the night.
I jest to Oberon, and make him smile?
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal;
And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted crab;?
And, when she drinks, against her lips I
bob
And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.
The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;?
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;
And then the whole
quire
hold their hips and laugh;
And
waxen
in their mirth, and
neeze
, and swear?
A merrier hour was never wasted there [2.1.32-57].
[3]
Puck serves the fairy king
Oberon
. Oberon is angry with
Titania
, the fairy queen, because she will not let him have a particular "little changeling boy" (2.1.120). Oberon sends Puck to fetch a particular flower, whereof the juice "on sleeping eyelids laid / Will make or man or woman madly dote / Upon the next live creature that it sees" (2.1.170-72). Puck is told to apply some of it to the "disdainful youth" (2.1.261) in "Athenian garments" (2.1.264), but Puck mistakes
Lysander
for
Demetrius
and applies it to Lysander. Oberon applies some of the juice to
Titania
, and Titania is waked by a singing
Nick Bottom
, whose head Puck has changed to that of an ass. Later, Puck is ordered to rectify his mistake with Lysander and Demetrius, and he creates a black fog through which he separates the "testy rivals" (3.2.358), imitating their voices until they are asleep. Puck has the final lines of the play:
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended.
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.?
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
If you pardon, we will mend.?
And, as I'm an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;?
Else the Puck a liar call:
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends [5.1.433-48].
[4]
Name of character
[
edit
]
The original texts of Shakespeare's plays do not have cast-lists, and are not always consistent with characters' names. Puck's case is particularly awkward. Both the Quarto and the
First Folio
call the character "Robin Goodfellow" on the first entrance, but "Puck" later in the same scene, and they remain inconsistent. The Arden Shakespeare calls the character "Puck", and emends all stage directions (but not actual dialogue) that refer to the character as "Robin" or "Robin Goodfellow".
[5]
[
citation needed
]
Portrayals
[
edit
]
Film and TV
[
edit
]
Theatre
[
edit
]
School productions
[
edit
]
Painting and sculpture
[
edit
]
- Puck
(1789), a painting by
Joshua Reynolds
- Puck
(c. 1810?1820), a painting by
Henry Fuseli
.
[29]
- Puck
(c. 1855?1856), a marble sculpture by
Harriet Hosmer
[30]
- The
Puck Building
built in 1885?1888 in
Nolita
, New York City, features two naked statues of Puck by sculptor
Henry Baerer
.
[31]
[32]
The building is named after and housed the 19th-century humor magazine
Puck
. The magazine was named after the character, and used a depiction and a quote of him as a logotype.
[33]
- Sculpture
Puck
, by Carl Andersson, bronze, 1912, in the
Stockholm
suburb of
Midsommarkransen
in Sweden.
[34]
[35]
- Puck
by
Brenda Putnam
, marble, 1932, at the
Folger Shakespeare Library
in Washington, D.C.
[36]
Music
[
edit
]
- French pianist and composer
Claude Debussy
dedicated a prelude to Puck,
La danse de Puck
.
[37]
Literature
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Shakespeare's sources for Puck were assembled and analysed by Winifried Schleiner (1985). "Imaginative Sources For Shakespeare's Puck"
Shakespeare Quarterly
36
(1): 65?68.
doi
:
10.2307/2870083
.
JSTOR
2870083
.
- ^
Wall, Wendy (2001).
"Why Does Puck Sweep?: Fairylore, Merry Wives, and Social Struggle"
.
Shakespeare Quarterly
.
52
(1): 67?106.
doi
:
10.1353/shq.2001.0021
.
ISSN
0037-3222
.
JSTOR
3648647
.
S2CID
191580811
.
- ^
Shakespeare, William,
"The Text: Act II"
,
A Midsummer Night's Dream
, retrieved
14 March
2023
- ^
Shakespeare, William,
"The Text: Act V"
,
A Midsummer Night's Dream
, retrieved
14 March
2023
- ^
Arden Shakespeare introduction and text of
A Midsummer Night's Dream
- ^
James, Clive (17 September 2016).
"Clive James: 'Mickey Rooney hammed it up rotten as Puck'
"
.
The Guardian
. Retrieved
11 April
2019
.
- ^
Clarke, Andrew.
"Shake up your Shakespeare: 10 innovative plays for today"
.
East Anglian Daily Times
. Archived from
the original
on 11 April 2019
. Retrieved
11 April
2019
.
- ^
Dobson, Michael; Wells, Stanley; Sharpe, Will; Sullivan, Erin (2015).
The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare
. Oxford University Press.
ISBN
9780191058158
. Retrieved
11 April
2019
.
- ^
Burnett, Mark Thornton; Streete, Adrian; Wray, Ramona (31 October 2011).
The Edinburgh Companion to Shakespeare and the Arts
. Edinburgh University Press.
ISBN
9780748649341
. Retrieved
15 October
2017
– via Google Books.
- ^
Perlmutter, David (2018).
The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows
. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 231.
ISBN
9781538103746
. Retrieved
11 April
2019
.
- ^
Shakespeare, William (1905).
A Midsummer Night's Dream
. Sourcebooks, Inc. p. 70.
ISBN
9781402226809
. Retrieved
11 April
2019
.
- ^
Richards, Stuart James (2017).
The Queer Film Festival: Popcorn and Politics
. Springer. p. 191.
ISBN
9781137584380
. Retrieved
11 April
2019
.
- ^
"Meet the cast of A Midsummer Night's Dream"
.
Radio Times
. Retrieved
11 April
2019
.
- ^
"Review | This new 'Midsummer Night's Dream' movie is set in Hollywood. Sounds cool, no? Wrong"
.
Washington Post
. Retrieved
11 April
2019
.
- ^
"BBC Two - Upstart Crow, Series 3, Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be!, If we shadows have offended"
.
BBC
. 28 August 2018
. Retrieved
11 April
2019
.
- ^
"Upstart Crow - S3 - Episode 1: Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be!"
.
Radio Times
. Archived from
the original
on 11 April 2019
. Retrieved
11 April
2019
.
- ^
Sorren, Martha.
"Robin From Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 3 Has Shakespearean Roots"
.
Refinery29.com
. Retrieved
2 February
2020
.
- ^
"Digitale Bibliothek - Munchener Digitalisierungszentrum"
(in German)
. Retrieved
18 March
2018
.
- ^
"Billboard"
. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 17 January 1948. p. 42
. Retrieved
11 April
2019
.
- ^
The Music Magazine/Musical Courier
. 1961. p. 57.
- ^
Shakespeare, William (1905).
A Midsummer Night's Dream
. Sourcebooks, Inc. p. 14.
ISBN
9781402226809
. Retrieved
11 April
2019
.
- ^
Aucoin, Don (14 September 2009).
"Dream in 'Donkey Show' is Shakespearean"
.
Boston.com
. Retrieved
11 April
2019
.
- ^
Wollman, Elizabeth L. (2009).
The Theater Will Rock: A History of the Rock Musical, from Hair to Hedwig
. University of Michigan Press. p. 215.
ISBN
9780472034024
.
- ^
Sanders, Kim (31 January 2007).
"Heating Up 'Midsummer'
"
.
Daily Bruin
. Retrieved
19 April
2023
.
- ^
Shakespeare, William (2016).
The New Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works
. Oxford University Press.
ISBN
9780199591152
.
- ^
"A Midsummer Night's Dream"
.
TheaterMania
. Retrieved
26 March
2020
.
- ^
Barnes, Jennifer (2017).
Shakespearean Star
. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN
9781107181113
. Retrieved
11 April
2019
.
- ^
"The North Wall: From the school stage to living the artistic dream"
.
The Oxford Times
. Retrieved
11 April
2019
.
- ^
Sillars, Stuart (2006).
Painting Shakespeare: The Artist as Critic, 1720-1820
. Cambridge University Press. pp. 241?242.
ISBN
978-0-521-85308-8
. Retrieved
1 March
2020
.
- ^
"Puck"
. Smithsonian American Art Museum
. Retrieved
25 September
2022
.
- ^
Finn, Robin (19 September 2013).
"Penthouses for the Puck Building"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
29 March
2019
.
- ^
Alleman, Richard (2013).
New York: The Movie Lover's Guide: The Ultimate Insider Tour of Movie New York
. Crown/Archetype. p. 283.
ISBN
9780804137782
. Retrieved
29 March
2019
.
- ^
Kahn, Michael Alexander; West, Richard Samuel (2014).
PUCK: What Fools These Mortals Be!
. IDW Publishing. p. 13.
ISBN
9781623026691
.
- ^
"Puck"
.
www.skulptur.stockholm.se
. Retrieved
29 March
2019
.
- ^
"Denna gestalt skulle alla oberoende av kon kunna spela"
.
BATTRE STADSDEL
. 7 March 2016
. Retrieved
11 April
2019
.
- ^
Rubenstein, Charlotte Streifer,
American Women Sculptors: A History of Women Working in Three Dimensions
, G. K. Hall and Co. Boston, 1990 p. 248
- ^
Walsh, Stephen (2018).
Debussy: A Painter in Sound
.
Knopf Doubleday
Publishing Group.
ISBN
978-1-5247-3193-9
.
- ^
Levenson, Jill L.; Ormsby, Robert (27 March 2017).
The Shakespearean World
.
Taylor & Francis
. p. 386.
ISBN
9781317696193
. Retrieved
12 October
2017
– via Google Books.
External links
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