THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

ROBIN GOODFELLOW 247
never varied. Harsnet, in the Declaration of egregious
Popish Impostures, calls attention to " the bowle of curds
and creame . . . set out for Robin Good-fellow " in
no uncertain terms; as does the author of the Masque at
C~le-Orton,~~~ and the author of The Cobler of Canterburie,
who deplored the disappearance of Robin Goodfellow
with the disappearance of hospitality toward him :
This makes Robin Good fellow that was so merrie a spirite of the
butterie, to leaue all, and keep himselfe in Purgatorie, for Hos-
pitalitie is so cleane runne out of the countrie, that he needes not
now helpe the maides to grinde their mault, for the drinke is so
small, that it needs little corne: and if he should helpe them,
where he was wont to finde a messe of creame for his labour,
scarce get a dish of floate milke.l10
Even when he was represented as a lesser devil, his de-
sire for cream and bread was still a predominant charac-
teristic. In The Devil is an Ass, Satan is to be found in
Hell reminding Pug of his interest in cream.120 And in
Grim, the Collier of Croydon, Robin cannot keep his
spoon out of the cream bowl, but states frankly:
I love a mess of cream as well as they.lZ1
It must have been this passion that prompted the super-
stition that bread carried about the person was a talisman
I
shape of a tall man, having very long brown hair. There was scarce
any the least village in which this superstitious custom did not pre-
vail. I enquired the reason of it from several well-meaning women,
who until of late had practised it; and they told me that it had been
transmitted to them by their ancestors successfully, who believed it
was attended with good fortune." M. Martin, Desc. of West. Isles,
Pinkerton rpt., p. 610.
117 Page 134.
lla Page 330.
Appendix, Tarltons Newes, p. I 10.
lXD
lZ0 Jonson, Gifford ed., I, I.
lZ1 v, I.