We shall now proceed to offer a few observations on the probable extent of Shakespeare's obligations to the fairy creed of his own day, as it is known to have existed before the production of the Midsummer Night's Dream, about the year 1594. We have already alluded to what has been considered a notice of Robin Goodfellow in a work of the thirteenth century; but no other mention of him occurs for nearly three hundred years. We then find him alluded to as a common subject for old women's tales, never in any manner to leave room for supposing the merry sprite had only very recently risen up. Reginald Scot, who published his Discoverie of Witchcraft in 1584, has several curious notices of him under the name of Robin Goodfellow. "There go as manie he, " tales," says he, upon Hudgin in some parts of Germanie, as there did in England of Robin Goodfellowe.” Elsewhere he says, " and know you this by the waie, that heretofore Robin Goodfellow and Hobgobblin were as terrible, and also as credible to the people, as hags and witches be now; and, in truth, they that mainteine walking spirits have no reason to denie Robin Goodfellow, upon whom there hath gone as manie and as credible tales as upon witches, saving that it hath not pleased the translators of the Bible to call spirits by the name of Robin Goodfellow." Sometimes we find the name as a kind of generic appellation for a species of mischievous goblins, not confined to any individual one; but the character of goblin seems apparent from his cry of ho! ho! ho-the exclamation frequently appropriated to the devil in our early mysteries. Shakespeare makes him, as attendant on Oberon, a more gentle spirit, divested of malice, but highly enjoying a pleasant prank when permitted by the fairy sovereign. It appears, therefore, from these extracts alone, that tales of Robin Goodfellow were common in this country many years before the appearance of the Midsummer Night's Dream. There now arises a question worthy of patient consideration: whether the rare work entitled "Robin Goodfellow his Mad Pranks and Merry Jests," 4to. Lond. 1628, reprinted in the present volume, was really anterior to Shakespeare's play. We all know that many works of that class have reached us only in later editions, and that the date on the title is no evidence that it was not first printed as early even as 1590. Only two copies of the tract are known, and these are with different dates. It follows, then, that more reliance is to be placed on internal evidence; and the general character of the work is certainly indicative of an earlier date. One tradition, which is noticed at p. 132, is also alluded to by Reginald Scot in 1584. We cannot help believing with Mr. Collier that Shakespeare was acquainted with this, or some very similar, production, when he wrote his Midsummer Night's Dream. It will be observed that Robin Goodfellow is represented as Oberon's own son, and received his miraculous powers from his royal father, who enjoined him to harm none "but knaves and queanes." qualities which Shakespeare attributes to Puck may also be distinctly traced in the same tract; and other b The similarities have been elsewhere noticed; but, since the reader has the whole of it before him in the following pages, it is scarcely necessary to pursue the argument further, unless we were enabled to produce more satisfactory and decisive evidence. A curious passage has recently been adduced, as an illustration of a passage in the Midsummer Night's Dream, from Nash's Terrors of the Night, printed in 1594, the probable date of that play, which would almost appear to warrant an opinion of the more recent origin. of the name of Robin Goodfellow. Nash observes that "the Robin Goodfellowes, elfes, fairies, hobgoblins of our latter age, which idolatrous former daies, and the phantastical world of Greece, ycleped fawnes, satyres, dryades, and hamadryades, did most of their merry prankes in the night. Then ground they malt, and had hempen shirts for their labours, daunst in greene meadows, pincht maids in their sleep that swept not their houses cleane, and led poor travellers out of their way notoriously." It must be confessed that earlier notices of Robin Goodfellow are not very common; and it may, therefore, be mentioned that an allusion to him occurs in the old comedy entitled the Bugbears, preserved in MS. Lansdowne 807. The numerous accounts of the "lob of spirits" in later works scarcely bear on the question now under consideration, and the reader had better be referred to the pieces here collected. The following lines, however, which have not yet been quoted by writers on this subject, may deserve a place, as they allude to a curious opinion that bread carried about the person was a charm against the tricks of Robin Goodfellow : Thy fairie elves, who thee mislead with stories Yea, clap their hands for joy. Were I us'd so, I would shake hands with them, and turn their foe. Bear bread about them to prevent that harm. Clobery's Divine Glimpses, 1659, p. 73. Ben Jonson's ballad of Robin Goodfellow was probably written after the appearance of the Midsummer Night's Dream, or we might have accused Shakespeare of borrowing two or three lines. Rare Ben is more likely the plagiarist; and his fairy poetry is altogether inferior even to Drayton, of course far below Shakespeare. His learning is in his way; and, with "small Latin and less Greek," he might have been more successful in attempts of this kind. As it is, the ballad just mentioned is, perhaps, among his best. It is also worthy of observation that the occupations assigned to Puck by Ben Jonson nearly correspond with the account he gives of himself in the sweet Avonian dream. Shakespeare probably took the name of Oberon from the old romance of Huon of Bordeaux, which had been translated into English at an early period, and had probably become a popular work. I have recently seen an imperfect copy of an ancient edition of this translation, printed in folio in double columns, and illustrated with rude woodcuts, certainly printed before Shakespeare could have commenced writing for the stage, and in all probability not long after the year 1560. Oberon had also been introduced in an entertainment before Elizabeth in 1591, and he again appears as a character in an early drama by W. Percy. The name of Titania, as has been elsewhere observed by Mr. Keightley, is taken from Ovid; but the other fairies, Peas-blossom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustard-seed, probably owe their appellations to the poet himself. It may also be mentioned that Titania is the name of the Queen of Fairies in a play by Decker, published in 1607. Our researches in this line are, however, unfortunately interrupted by the deficiency of materials. No writer of the time thought it worth his while to preserve such things for posterity; and we therefore find few records of the old gossips' fairy tales, beyond the bare fact that they were in the habit of being related, much in the same way that ghost-stories are sometimes told now, to "fright the maidens of the villagery." There can be little doubt that the best and most curious of these have long since ceased to be remembered; and after much research for the fragments that still remain, the Editor regrets that his endeavours have not been so satisfactorily rewarded as he could have wished. It would, indeed, be impossible to emulate the popular exertions of Mr. Crofton Croker; but, at all events, a collection has been formed, and although somewhat heterogeneous and of unequal merit in the character of its contents, we can only console ourselves by the knowledge that there are no better to be had, at least as far as has been at present ascertained. There is certainly no telling what treasures are buried in some of our |