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{{Short description|Character in A Midsummer Night's Dream}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2018}}
[[File:MidsummerPuckFlying.jpg|thumb|Vince Cardinale as Puck from the [[Carmel Shakespeare Festival]] production of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', September 2000]]{{For|the character in non-Shakespearean contexts|Puck (folklore)}}
'''Puck''', or '''Robin Goodfellow''', is a character in [[William Shakespeare]]'s play ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]''.
Based on the [[Puck (mythology)|Puck]] of [[English mythology]] and the [[púca]] of Celtic mythology,<ref>Shakespeare's sources for Puck were assembled and analysed by Winifried Schleiner (1985). "Imaginative Sources For Shakespeare's Puck" ''Shakespeare Quarterly'' '''36'''(1): 65–68. {{doi|10.2307/2870083}}. {{JSTOR|2870083}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wall|first=Wendy|date=2001|title=Why Does Puck Sweep?: Fairylore, Merry Wives, and Social Struggle|journal=Shakespeare Quarterly|volume=52|issue=1|pages=67–106|doi=10.1353/shq.2001.0021|jstor=3648647|s2cid=191580811|issn=0037-3222|doi-access=free}}</ref> Puck is a mischievous [[fairy]], [[Sprite (folklore)|sprite]], or [[jester]]. He is the first of the main fairy characters to appear, and he significantly influences events in the play. He delights in pranks such as replacing [[Nick Bottom]]'s head with that of an [[Asinus|ass]].
==Appearances in the play==
[[File:Reynolds-Puck.JPG|right|thumb|''Puck'' (1789) by [[Joshua Reynolds]] |alt=Oil painting representing Puck as a baby with pointed ears and curly blonde hair sitting on an enormous mushroom in a forest. He holds a small posy and grins mischievously.]]
The audience is introduced to Puck in 2.1:
{{poemquote|
FAIRY:
Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are you not he
That frights the maidens of the villagery;
Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the [[wikt:quern#Noun|quern]],
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;
And sometime make the drink to bear no [[wikt:barm#Noun 2|barm]];
Mislead night wanderers, laughing at their harm?
Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
Are you not he?
PUCK:
{{spaces|32}}Fairy, thou speak'st aright;
I am that merry wanderer of the night.
I jest to Oberon, and make him smile
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal;
And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted crab;
And, when she drinks, against her lips I [[wikt:bob#Verb|bob]]
And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.
The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;
And then the whole [[wikt:quire|quire]] hold their hips and laugh;
And [[wikt:waxen#Adjective|waxen]] in their mirth, and [[wikt:neeze#Verb|neeze]], and swear
A merrier hour was never wasted there.|Act 2, scene 1, lines 32–57<ref>{{Citation |last=Shakespeare |first=William |title=The Text: Act II |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Midsummer_Night's_Dream_(1918)_Yale/Text/Act_II |work=A Midsummer Night's Dream |access-date=2023-03-14}}</ref>}}
[[File:Puck (Fuseli, 1810-1820).jpg|thumb|''Puck'' (c. 1810–1820), [[Henry Fuseli]]'s depiction of the character]]
Puck serves the fairy king [[Oberon]]. Oberon is angry with [[Titania (A Midsummer Night's Dream)|Titania]], the fairy queen, because she will not let him have a particular "little changeling boy" (2.1.120). Oberon sends Puck to fetch a particular flower, whereof the juice "on sleeping eyelids laid / Will make or man or woman madly dote / Upon the next live creature that it sees" (2.1.170–72). Puck is told to apply some of it to the "disdainful youth" (2.1.261) in "Athenian garments" (2.1.264), but Puck mistakes [[Lysander (Shakespeare)|Lysander]] for [[Demetrius (Shakespeare)|Demetrius]] and applies it to Lysander. Oberon applies some of the juice to [[Titania (A Midsummer Night's Dream)|Titania]], and Titania is waked by a singing [[Nick Bottom]], whose head Puck has changed to that of an ass. Later, Puck is ordered to rectify his mistake with Lysander and Demetrius, and he creates a black fog through which he separates the "testy rivals" (3.2.358), imitating their voices until they are asleep. Puck has the final lines of the play:
[[File:Puck by William Dyce - William Dyce - ABDAG003235.jpg|thumb|''Puck'' by William Dyce, (1825) Aberdeen Archives, Gallery and Museums]]
{{poemquote|If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended.
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
If you pardon, we will mend.
And, as I'm an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call:
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.|Act 5, scene 1, lines 433–448<ref>{{Citation |last=Shakespeare |first=William |title=The Text: Act V |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Midsummer_Night's_Dream_(1918)_Yale/Text/Act_V |work=A Midsummer Night's Dream |access-date=2023-03-14}}</ref>}}
== Character name ==
The original texts of Shakespeare's plays do not have cast-lists, and are not always consistent with characters' names. Puck's case is particularly awkward. Both the Quarto and the [[First Folio]] call the character "Robin Goodfellow" on first entrance, but "Puck" later in the same scene, and they remain inconsistent. The ''[[Arden Shakespeare]]'' calls the character "Puck", and emends all stage directions (but not dialogue) that refer to the character as "Robin" or "Robin Goodfellow".<ref>Arden Shakespeare introduction and text of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Robin Goodfellow or Puck {{!}} A Midsummer Might's Dream {{!}} Royal Shakespeare Company |url=https://www.rsc.org.uk/a-midsummer-nights-dream/about-the-play/robin-goodfellow-or-puck |access-date=2025-09-06 |website=www.rsc.org.uk |language=en-GB}}</ref>
==Portrayals and notable cultural references==
This list excludes non-Shakespearean references. They may be found at [[Puck (folklore)]].[[File:Carl Andersson Puck Midsommarkransen.JPG|thumb|''Puck'' by {{Interlanguage link multi|Carl Andersson (sculptor)|sv|3=Carl Andersson (skulptör)}}, [[Midsommarkransen]], Stockholm, Sweden]]
===Film and TV===
* [[Mickey Rooney]], in the [[A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935 film)|Oscar-winning 1935 film]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=James |first1=Clive |title=Mickey Rooney hammed it up rotten as Puck |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/sep/17/clive-james-mickey-rooney-puck-midsummer-nights-dream-acting |access-date=11 April 2019 |work=The Guardian |date=17 September 2016}}</ref>
* [[Ian Holm]], in [[A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968 film)|the 1968 film]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Clarke |first1=Andrew |title=Shake up your Shakespeare: 10 innovative plays for today |url=https://www.eadt.co.uk/what-s-on/shake-up-shakespeare-top-ten-plays-ranked-judi-dench-ian-mckellen-macbeth-othello-1-5645418 |access-date=11 April 2019 |work=East Anglian Daily Times |language=en |archive-date=11 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411101632/https://www.eadt.co.uk/what-s-on/shake-up-shakespeare-top-ten-plays-ranked-judi-dench-ian-mckellen-macbeth-othello-1-5645418 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* [[Phil Daniels]], in the 1981 [[BBC Shakespeare]] television production.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dobson |first1=Michael |last2=Wells |first2=Stanley |last3=Sharpe |first3=Will |last4=Sullivan |first4=Erin |title=The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780191058158 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=caogCwAAQBAJ&q=%22Phil+Daniels%22+puck+1981&pg=PT1689 |access-date=11 April 2019 |language=en}}</ref>
* [[Razzak Khan]], in the 1988 [[West End theatre|West End]] production.
* [[Robert Sean Leonard]] plays Puck in a high-school production in the 1989 film ''[[Dead Poets Society]]''.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lZdvAAAAQBAJ&q=%22Dead+Poets+Society%22+puck&pg=PA383|title=The Edinburgh Companion to Shakespeare and the Arts|first1=Mark Thornton|last1=Burnett|first2=Adrian|last2=Streete|first3=Ramona|last3=Wray|date=31 October 2011|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=9780748649341|access-date=15 October 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref>
* [[Stanley Tucci]], in [[A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999 film)|the 1999 film]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shakespeare |first1=William |title=A Midsummer Night's Dream |date=1905 |publisher=Sourcebooks, Inc. |isbn=9781402226809 |pages=70 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B-ubQrd1j7AC&q=%22Stanley+Tucci%22+puck&pg=PA70 |access-date=11 April 2019 |language=en}}</ref>
* [[Tanner Cohen]], in a high-school production depicted in the 2008 film ''[[Were the World Mine]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Richards |first1=Stuart James |title=The Queer Film Festival: Popcorn and Politics |date=2017 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9781137584380 |pages=191 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WZDZDQAAQBAJ&q=%22Tanner+Cohen%22+puck+%22Were+the+World+Mine%22&pg=PA191 |access-date=11 April 2019 |language=en}}</ref>
*[[Hiran Abeysekera]] in the [[A Midsummer Night's Dream (2016 film)|2016 film]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Meet the cast of A Midsummer Night's Dream |url=https://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-05-30/meet-the-cast-of-a-midsummer-nights-dream/ |access-date=11 April 2019 |work=Radio Times |language=en}}</ref>
* [[Avan Jogia]], in [[A Midsummer Night's Dream (2017 film)|the 2017 film]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Review {{!}} This new 'Midsummer Night's Dream' movie is set in Hollywood. Sounds cool, no? Wrong. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/this-new-midsummer-nights-dream-movie-is-set-in-hollywood-sounds-cool-no-wrong/2018/08/13/ef456ca0-9d9a-11e8-843b-36e177f3081c_story.html?noredirect=on |access-date=11 April 2019 |newspaper=Washington Post |language=en}}</ref>
*[[Ken Nwosu]], in ''[[Upstart Crow]]'' in 2018.<ref>{{cite web |title=BBC Two – Upstart Crow, Series 3, Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be!, If we shadows have offended |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06jntnz |website=BBC |date=28 August 2018 |access-date=11 April 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Upstart Crow – S3 – Episode 1: Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be! |url=https://www.radiotimes.com/tv-programme/e/gw2tqw/upstart-crow--s3-e1-lord-what-fools-these-mortals-be/ |website=Radio Times |access-date=11 April 2019 |language=en |archive-date=11 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411111138/https://www.radiotimes.com/tv-programme/e/gw2tqw/upstart-crow--s3-e1-lord-what-fools-these-mortals-be/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
*[[Jonathan Whitesell]] plays a version of Robin Goodfellow in [[The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV series)|''The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina'']] in 2020.<ref name="Refinery">{{Cite web |url=https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/01/9232705/what-is-robin-hobgoblin-chilling-adventures-of-sabrina |title=Robin From Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 3 Has Shakespearean Roots |last=Sorren |first=Martha |website=Refinery29.com |language=en |access-date=2020-02-02}}</ref>
===Theatre===
* [[Gertrud Eysoldt]], first on 10 April, 1893 at the Riga City Theater, and later in [[Max Reinhardt|Max Reinhardt's]] 1905 production in Berlin.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2018-03-18|language=de|title=Digitale Bibliothek - Münchener Digitalisierungszentrum|url=http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/0001/bsb00016320/images/index.html?seite=726}}<!-- auto-translated from German by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>
* [[Frederick Peisley]] in [[Donald Wolfit]]'s production in 1947.<ref>{{cite news |last1= |first1= |date=17 January 1948 |title=Billboard |language=en |pages=42 |publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=efUDAAAAMBAJ&q=%22Frederick+Peisley%22+puck&pg=PA42 |access-date=11 April 2019}}</ref>
* [[Adam Darius]], with the Stora Teatern in Göteborg, Sweden in 1961.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Music Magazine/Musical Courier |date=1961 |pages=57 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ui5EAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Adam+Darius%22+puck |language=en}}</ref>
* [[John Kane (writer)|John Kane]], with [[The Royal Shakespeare Company]] in 1970.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shakespeare |first1=William |title=A Midsummer Night's Dream |date=1905 |publisher=Sourcebooks, Inc. |isbn=9781402226809 |pages=14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B-ubQrd1j7AC&q=%22John+Kane%22+puck&pg=PA9 |access-date=11 April 2019 |language=en}}</ref>
*Puck is renamed "Dr. Wheelgood" in [[Diane Paulus]]'s production [[The Donkey Show (musical)|''The Donkey Show'']] in 1999.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Aucoin |first1=Don |title=Dream in 'Donkey Show' is Shakespearean |url=http://archive.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2009/09/14/the_donkey_show_transforms_midsummer_nights_dream_with_a_70s_energy/ |access-date=11 April 2019 |work=Boston.com |date=14 September 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Wollman |first1=Elizabeth L. |title=The Theater Will Rock: A History of the Rock Musical, from Hair to Hedwig |date=2009 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=9780472034024 |pages=215 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LRrbAQAAQBAJ&q=%22The+Donkey+Show%22+puck&pg=PA215 |language=en}}</ref>
*[[Karenssa LeGear]] in [[UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music#Schoenberg Music Building|Schoenberg Hall]]'s 2007 production.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sanders |first=Kim |date=2007-01-31 |title=Heating Up 'Midsummer' |url=https://dailybruin.com/2007/01/31/heating-up-midsummer/ |access-date=2023-04-19 |website=[[Daily Bruin]]}}</ref>
* [[Matthew Tennyson]], with [[Shakespeare's Globe Theatre]] in 2013.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shakespeare |first1=William |title=The New Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199591152 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aMpjDQAAQBAJ&q=%22Matthew+Tennyson%22+puck&pg=PA1079 |language=en}}</ref>
* [[Kathryn Hunter]] in [[Julie Taymor]]'s 2013 production for the [[Theatre for a New Audience]].<ref name="TheaterMania">{{cite web | title=A Midsummer Night's Dream | website=TheaterMania | url=https://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/reviews/a-midsummer-nights-dream_66516.html | access-date=2020-03-26}}</ref>
===Painting and sculpture===
[[File:Puck magazine logo 1885.tif|thumb|Logo for the magazine ''[[Puck (magazine)|Puck]]'', 1871-1918]]
*''Puck'' (1789), a painting by [[Joshua Reynolds]]
*''Puck'' (c. 1810–1820), a painting by [[Henry Fuseli]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sillars |first1=Stuart |title=Painting Shakespeare: The Artist as Critic, 1720-1820 |date=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-85308-8 |pages=241–242 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a8Piqev7LAkC&pg=PR15 |access-date=1 March 2020 |language=en}}</ref>
*''Puck'' (c. 1855–1856), a marble sculpture by [[Harriet Hosmer]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Puck|publisher=Smithsonian American Art Museum|url=https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/puck-10804|accessdate=25 September 2022}}</ref>
* The [[Puck Building]] built in 1885–1888 in [[Nolita]], New York City, features two naked statues of Puck by sculptor [[Henry Baerer]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Finn |first1=Robin |title=Penthouses for the Puck Building |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/22/realestate/penthouses-for-the-puck-building.html |access-date=29 March 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=19 September 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Alleman |first1=Richard |title=New York: The Movie Lover's Guide: The Ultimate Insider Tour of Movie New York |date=2013 |publisher=Crown/Archetype |isbn=9780804137782 |pages=283 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f_0Z5SxTKLkC&q=%22Puck+Building%22+shakespeare&pg=PA283 |access-date=29 March 2019 |language=en}}</ref> The building is named after and housed the 19th-century humor magazine ''[[Puck (magazine)|Puck]]''. The magazine was named after the character, and used a depiction and a quote of him as a logotype.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kahn |first1=Michael Alexander |last2=West |first2=Richard Samuel |title=PUCK: What Fools These Mortals Be! |date=2014 |publisher=IDW Publishing |isbn=9781623026691 |pages=13 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5SfFBAAAQBAJ&q=puck%2Bmagazine+shakespeare+mortals&pg=PA13 |language=en}}</ref>
* Sculpture ''Puck'', by Carl Andersson, bronze, 1912, in the [[Stockholm]] suburb of [[Midsommarkransen]] in Sweden.<ref>{{cite web |title=Puck |url=http://www.skulptur.stockholm.se/default.asp?id=9775&lang=EN |website=www.skulptur.stockholm.se |access-date=29 March 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Denna gestalt skulle alla oberoende av kön kunna spela |url=http://www.battrestadsdel.se/hagersten-liljeholmen/liljeholmen/denna-gestalt-skulle-alla-oberoende-av-kon-kunna-spela/ |access-date=11 April 2019 |work=BÄTTRE STADSDEL |date=7 March 2016}}</ref>
* ''Puck'' by [[Brenda Putnam]], marble, 1932, at the [[Folger Shakespeare Library]] in Washington, D.C.<ref>Rubenstein, Charlotte Streifer, ''American Women Sculptors: A History of Women Working in Three Dimensions'', G. K. Hall and Co. Boston, 1990 p. 248</ref>
===Music===
* French pianist and composer [[Claude Debussy]] dedicated a prelude to Puck, '' La danse de Puck''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Walsh |first1=Stephen |title=Debussy: A Painter in Sound |date=2018 |publisher=[[Knopf Doubleday]] Publishing Group |isbn=978-1-5247-3193-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nWJJDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT229 |language=en}}</ref>
===Literature===
* ''[[Dear Brutus]]'' is a 1917 fantasy play by [[J. M. Barrie]], the host "Lob" being the aged Puck from Shakespeare's play
* The 1976 play ''Robin Goodfellow'' by [[Aurand Harris]] retells ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' from Puck's point of view.
* In [[Neil Gaiman]]'s 1990 comic-book ''[[The Sandman (Vertigo)|The Sandman]]'' story "[[The Sandman: Dream Country#"A Midsummer Night's Dream"|'A Midsummer Night's Dream]]", Puck and other fairies watch Shakespeare's company of actors perform the play.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KDAlDwAAQBAJ&q=puck+sandman+gaiman&pg=PA386|title=The Shakespearean World|first1=Jill L.|last1=Levenson|first2=Robert|last2=Ormsby|date=27 March 2017|page=386|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|isbn=9781317696193|access-date=12 October 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline|Puck (elf)}}
{{A Midsummer Night's Dream}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:Puck (''A Midsummer Night's Dream'')}}
[[Category:Characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream]]
[[Category:Literary characters introduced in 1596]]
[[Category:Fictional characters who use magic]]
[[Category:Fictional elves]]
[[Category:Male Shakespearean characters]]
[[Category:Fictional goblins]]
[[Category:Fictional fairies]]
[[Category:Fictional pranksters]]
[[Category:Fictional jesters]]
[[Category:Puck (folklore)]]
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