THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

252 ROBIN GOODFELLOW
don, and Wily Beguiled, and are the subject of the tracts
and ballads of which he is the hero.
Few jokes were omitted from his repertoire. As a
specimen page of his history shows,
Robin Good-fellow urould many times walke in the night with a
broome on his shoulder, and cry chimney sweepe, but when any one
did call him, then would be runne away laughing ho, ho, hoh!
Somtime hee would counterfeit a begger, begging very pitifully,
but when they came to give him an almes, he would runne away,
laughing as his manner was. Sometimes would hee knocke at
mens doores, and when the servants came, he would blow out the
candle, if they were men; but if they were women, hee would not
onely put out their light, but kisse them full sweetly, and then go
away as his fashion was, ho, ho, hoh! Oftentimes would he sing
at a doore like a singing man, and when they did come to give him
his reward, he would turne his backe and 1a~gh.l~~
But all of these inventions faded into insignificance in
comparison with his chief joke of misleading night wan-
derers, " Laughing at their harmes," a prank in which
he indulged so frequently that pucks have gone down
in history as
Ambulones, that walk about midnight on great heaths and desert
places, which (saith Lavater) draw men out of the way, and lead
them all night a by-way, or quite bar them of their way. These
have several names in several places; we commonly call them Pucks.
In the deserts of Lop in Asia, such illusions of walking spirits are
often perceived, as you may read in Marco Polo the Venetian, his
I37 Robin GoodfeZlow; his mad prankes, and merry Jests, Halliwell
rpt., pp. 142-143. Cf. also Dekker, The Seuen deadly Sinnes of Lon-
don, Vol. 11, p. 46: " When the Bell-man for anger to spie (such a
Purloyner of Cittizens goods) so many, hath bounced at the doore like
a madde man. At which (as if Robin Good-fellow had been coniur'd
vp amongst them) the Wenches haue falne into/ the handes of the
Greene-sicknesse, aid the yong fellowes into cold Agues, with verie
feare least their maister . . . shoulde come downe."