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| '''Robin Goodfellow''' in English folklore is a euphemistic personification of a half-tamed, troublesome [[fairy]] or [[hobgoblin]], a prankster who is the domesticated aspect of [[Puck]].
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| Shakespeare refers to him in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', ii. 1.
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| The children's theater play ''Robin Goodfellow'' by Aurand Harris is a retelling of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' from the point of view of [[Puck]].
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| :Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
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| :Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
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| :Called Robin Goodfellow...
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| :Those that Hob-goblin call you, and sweet Puck,
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| :You do their work, and they shall have good luck.
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| The earliest reference to 'Robin Goodfellow' cited by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' is from 1531.
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| The name ''Robin'' is Middle English in origin, deriving from Old French ''Robin'', the pet form for the name Robert. After Giacomo Meyerbeer's successful opera ''Robert le Diable'' (1831), neo-medievalists and occultists began to apply the name ''Robin Goodfellow'' to the Devil, with appropriately extravagant imagery.
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| The character probably originates in German folklore.
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| According to the public domain 1898 edition of ''Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable'':
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| ''Robin Goodfellow''' was a "drudging fiend", and merry domestic fairy, famous for mischievous pranks and practical jokes. At night-time he will sometimes do little services for the family over which he presides. The Scotch call this domestic spirit a [[brownie]]; the Germans, [[kobold]] or [[Knecht Ruprecht]]. Scandinavians called it [[Nissë God-dreng]]. Puck, the jester of Fairy-court, is the same.
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| ==External links==
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| *[http://www.boldoutlaw.com/puckrobin/puck.html Puck - That Shrewd and Knavish Sprite Called Robin Goodfellow]
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| *[http://www.boldoutlaw.com/puckrobin/puckbals.html The Ballads of Robin Goodfellow]
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| ==See also==
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| * [[Lubber fiend]]
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| {{wikipedia}}
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| [[Category:English mythology]]
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| [[Category:Household spirits]]
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