THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

2 62 ROBIN GOODFELLOW
To leave Robin Goodfellow as the disreputable fa-
miliar spirit of a witch would be unfair to his memory.
Although his literary career ended with his appearance
in witch plays, he has survived in the echoes of his own
chuckles and in the smile which his name evokes, as the
synonym for mischief and for mirth. And no more fit-
ting epitome of himself and his career can be found,
with which to close his life, than the exclamation of
Grim, the collier of Croydon :
Master Robert you were ever one of the honestest
merry Devils that ever I saw.