The “Real” Robin Goodfellow
Most people know Robin Goodfellow as the character Puck in Shakespeare’s comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In the play, Puck is a loyal and trusted servant of Oberon, the fairy king. Puck can be mischievous—he gives Bottom the head of a donkey, for example—but there is also something lovable and childlike about him. The targets of Puck’s pranks are often arrogant, and have it coming to them, in one or way or another. In the end, Puck corrects his mistakes and seeks to make amends.
My favorite production of the play is the 1935 film version, in which Puck is played by 14-year-old Mickey Rooney. It seems right that a child should be cast in that role. Puck is the mischievous child in all of us. The eternal child who never dies.
But Puck isn’t entirely Shakespeare’s creation. The character Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow, has been around for centuries, long before Shakespeare took up his pen. In the English folk tradition, Robin Goodfellow appears in many different guises, but he is best known as a high-spirited prankster. He changes into a walking fire (or “Will o’ the Wisp”) and leads wayfarers astray at night. He makes himself invisible and gatecrashes parties, instigating mayhem by smacking boys on the ear or pinching girls. He changes into a horse, entices a bully onto his back, and carries his rider into a lake. But Robin can be helpful, too. People wake in the morning to find their chores have been done for them during the night. In many tales, Puck stands up for victims of oppression, punishing bullies with playful pranks.
A 16th century tract, The Mad Pranks and Merry Jests of Robin Goodfellow, attempts to weave these tales into one coherent narrative. It tells the story of Robin’s birth and childhood, and describes his transformation from a human boy into a fairy prince. This is where I found the outlines of a plot for my own story: Robin is an only child of a single mother; his elusive father is Oberon, the King of the Fairies. One day, Robin’s mother decides he needs a whipping, and Robin runs away. During his travels, he falls asleep in a forest, where he is visited by Oberon and his elves… All the basic elements of my opening plot are there.
The rest is my own creation, and my Robin is a character in his own right. Placing him in a 12th century English village and fleshing him out into a real boy, I wanted my Robin to be a different kind of hero—one who fights back, not with physical power, but with his heart and his wits—the real Robin Goodfellow.
