THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

ROBIN GOODFELLOW 259
and, in the second case, that he was, as were witches, an
illusion or instrument of the devil. Giff ard's A Dialogue
concerning Witches and Witchcrafts of I 593 had, more-
over, definitely connected witches and " puckerels,"
into which class Robin Goodfellow was put after A Mid-
summer Night's Dream.
In The Devil is an Ass of I 616, Pug is introduced as
numbering among his most successful exploits :
. . . some good ribibe, about Kentish Town
Or Hogsden, you would hang now for a witch,
Because she will not let you play round Robin.
And you'll go sour the citizens' cream 'gainst Sunday,
That she may be accused for't, and condemn'd,
By a Middlesex jury, to the satisfaction,
Of their offended friends, the Londoners wives,
Whose teeth were set on edge with't; 158
and Lancashire, famous for contemporary witch trials,
is recommended to him as the particular field for his
especial endeavors.16Q
In The Sad Shepherd, in the cast of which he is
described as " Puck-hairy, Or Robin-Goodfellow, their
Hine," he is presented as the familiar of Maudlin, the
witch, but as a spirit superior to her and the source of
her power : 'l
167 Page g.
15s Jonson, Gifford ed., I, I.
169 Ibid.
lso Jonson, Greg ed., p. I I 7.
lsl On page 234, Vol. 11, of Herford & Simpson's Ben Jonson, the
statement is made that Puck-hairy is "No kinsman of the impish
Puck, hardly even of Jonson's own hapless outwitted Pug." A knowl-
edge of Robin Goodfellow's and of Puck's history and antecedents,
and of Ben Jonson's knowledge and use of folklore forces me to dis-
sent from this statement.