THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

222 ROBIN GOODFELLOW
writing, and with indifferent eies to looke upon my book, were
labour lost, and time ill imployed. For I should no more prevaile
herein, then if a hundred years since I should have intreated your
predecessors to beleeve, that Robin good-fellow, that great and
antient bull-begger, had been but a cousening merchant, and no
devil indeed. . . . And know you this by the way, that heretofore
Robin good-fellow, and Hob-gobblin were as terrible, and also as
credible to the people, as hags and witches be now: . . . And in
truth, they that maintain walking spirits, with their transformation,
&c. have no reason to deny Robin good-fellow, upon whome there
have gone as many and as credible tales, as upon witches.*
So cherished were his person and his presence that he
was offered every inducement of hospitality by the
country folk who found the house " sonsier " for his
presence, and " famozed in every olde wives chronicle "
for his mad and merry pranks.?
There were a number of reasons for Robin Goodfellow's
fame and popularity. He was a ~ative British
spirit, as far as can be ascertained, bound up with the
traditions of the country and the customs and beliefs
of the pe~ple.~ Of all the spirits and terrors of the
night, he was never known to possess or to make use
of any supernatural powers fatal to mankind.g Finally,
4 Dis. of Witch., 1651 ed., "To the Readers," B; and p. 97.
Ibid., p. 66; Grim, the Collier of Croydon, Dodsley ed., 1780, Vol.
XI, v, I.
James VI of Scotland, Daemon., p. 127.
7 Tarltons Newes, p. 55.
" He [Oberon] is totally unlike Puck, his lieutenaat, 'the merry
wanderer of the night,' who springs from purely English superstition."
Huon of Burdeux, E. E. T. S. ed., Introduction by S. L. Lee, p. li.
Cf. also C. H. Herford, Studies in the Literary Relations of England
and Germany in the Sixteenth Century, 1886, p. 306; and E. K. Cham-
bers, " Fairy World," p. 160.
Notch the list of spirits given in The Buggbears, Robin Good-
fellow is not placed among those who are evil, but among those
amiable.