THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

242 ROBIN GOODFELLOW
and could change his shape to that of any animal or
mortal which the exigencies of the occasion demanded,
as, for instance, in The Pranks of Puck:
Sometimes I meet them like a man,
Sometimes an ox, sometimes a hound;
And to a horse I turn me can,
To trip and trot about them round;
But if, to ride,
My back they stride,
More swift than wind away I go;
O'er hedge, o'er lands,
Through pools, through ponds,
I hurry laughing, ho, ho, ho!
or in A Midsummer Night's Dream:
I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round,
Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier;
Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound,
A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire;
And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,
Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.88
Nothing about him betrayed his folk ,origin or his
country mapners more than his wardrobe. Although
this was never standardized and he possessed no traditional
or national costume, his taste in wearing apparel
could only pass muster in field or forest, or in country
kitchen or servants' hall.
Many times he wore nothing at all, as in Albions Eng-
1and,OQ the Discovery of Witch~raft,~' and Robin Goodfel-
Halliwell rpt., pp. 166-167.
89 111, I, 11. 107-112. Cf. also Scot, Dis. of'witch., 1651 ed., p. 97;
and Jonson, Love Restored, Morley ed., pp. 168-169.
Warner, 1612 quarto, Chap. 91, Hazlitt rpt., p. 363.
91 Scot, 1651 ed., p. 66.