for those among us who have not spent half their lives under a stack of books in the English departments, “Robin Goodfellow” is more commonly known as “Puck” from William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. Before that, Puck was just one of the many “brownies,” fairy housekeepers (think the house elves in Harry Potter). Among the household chores that brownies performed, other than sweeping, was quick and beautiful needlework.
while the wikipedia entry of Puck is a good general overview, it really doesn’t delve into the character himself very well. Avoiding the really dense scholarly articles, check out Allen W. Wright’s site a lot of the outside links are broken, but the general content remains whole.
personally, I have liked Shakespeare’s Puck since I first read MND when I was 12. A number of essays I wrote in the English department (both as an Undergrad and Graduate student) has allowed me to become awestruck by both Shakespeare and the older folklore about this hobgoblin. And while I do not see myself chasing people through the woods or spoiling fresh milk, I do like the character. Especially the needlework part. Thus, Robyn Goodfellow.
I myself am in my second graduate program. First English Literature and now Information Sciences (once and still sometimes called Library Science).
