11484.5 (26) FREDERICK SHOBERL, JUNIOR, PRINTER TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE ALBERT, 51, RUPERT STREET, HAYMARKET, LONDON. OF THE SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY. President. THE MOST NOBLE THE MARQUESS OF CONYNGHAM. Vice-Presidents. THE EARL OF POWIS. THE EARL OF GLENGALL. THE EARL HOWE. THE RT. HON. LORD FRANCIS EGERTON. THE RT. HON. LORD BRAYBROOKE. THE RT. HON. LORD LEIGH. THOMAS AMYOT, ESQ., F.R.S., TREAS. S.A. WILLIAM AYRTON, ESQ., F.R.S., F.S.A. J. PAYNE COLLIER, ESQ., F.S.A., DIRECTOR. PETER CUNNINGHAM, ESQ., TREASURER.· THE REV. ALEXANDER DYCE. SIR HENRY ELLIS, K.H., F.R.S., F.S.A. BARRON FIELD, ESQ. HENRY HALLAM, ESQ., F.R.S., V.P.S.A. T. J. PETTIGREW, ESQ., F.R.S. F.S.A. WILLIAM J. THOMS, ESQ., F.S.A. F. GUEST TOMLINS, ESQ., SECRETARY. EDWARD V. UTTERSON, ESQ., F.S.A. SIR FREDERICK BEILBY WATSON, K.C.H, F.R.S. The Council of the Shakespeare Society desire it to be understood that they are not answerable for any opinions or observations that may appear in the Society's publications; the Editors of the several works being alone responsible for the same. INTRODUCTION. Poor Puck's occupation, alas, is gone! Cream-bowls are safe, and slovenly servants freed from the persecutions of the noisy sprite. Money is no longer lent by a fairy or any one else without interest, and a rat once caught in a trap seldom vanishes with the merry ho! ho! ho! of Robin Goodfellow. Times, indeed, are sadly changed-even fairy-rings are sacrilegiously subjected to the hypotheses of science and if Shakespeare had lived some two centuries later, he must have had recourse to the sister island for a fairy creed that has long departed from his native shores. Thankful must we be that his lot was not so cast; that he found society in a less artificial state; for, while we could hardly have gained, we know not what we might have lost. The whole of the popular fairy mythology of the time, on which the Midsummer Night's Dream may be said to be founded, has now become a subject for literary research. Superstition, indeed, remains, and in very singular forms, considering the progress of educa tion; but the fairies have left us "for good and all," all,” and they do not even find a place in our juvenile literature, except through the medium of the modern tales of Madame d'Anois. There can be little doubt that, in the time of Shakespeare, the fairies held a more prominent position in our popular literature than can now be concluded from the pieces on the subject that have descended to us. The author of "Tarlton's News out of Purgatory,' printed in 1590, assures us that Robin Goodfellow was "famosed in every old wives chronicle for his mad merry pranks;" and we learn from Henslowe's Diary, as quoted by Mr. Collier, that Chettle was the writer of a drama on the adventures of that "merry wanderer of the night." These have disappeared; and time has dealt so harshly with the memory of poor Robin, that we might almost imagine his spirit was still leading us astray over massive volumes of antiquity in a delusive search after documents for ever lost; or, rather, perhaps it is his punishment for the useless journeys he has given our ancestors, misleading night-wanderers, and "laughing at their harm." The judgment has extended in every direction. Even in the provinces his gambols are forgotten, or have become matter of uncertain tradition. Forby, indeed, has recorded an East Anglian proverb, "to laugh like Robin Goodfellow," i.e., a long, loud, hearty, horse-laugh; but he adds that the deeds of the merry goblin have long been consigned to oblivion. In some few cases, however, something more definite may be preserved; but the other members of the fairy court have shared no better fate. |