Puck (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates
Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, is a character in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Based on the 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. Template:Doi. Template:JSTOR.</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Puck is a mischievous fairy, 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 ass.
Appearances in the play
The audience is introduced to Puck in 2.1:
.jpg)
Puck serves the fairy king Oberon. Oberon is angry with 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 for Demetrius and applies it to Lysander. Oberon applies some of the juice to 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:
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>Template:Cite web</ref>
Portrayals and notable cultural references
This list excludes non-Shakespearean references. They may be found at Puck (folklore).
Film and TV
- Mickey Rooney, in the Oscar-winning 1935 film.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- Ian Holm, in the 1968 film.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- Phil Daniels, in the 1981 BBC Shakespeare television production.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Razzak Khan, in the 1988 West End production.
- Robert Sean Leonard plays Puck in a high-school production in the 1989 film Dead Poets Society.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Stanley Tucci, in the 1999 film.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Tanner Cohen, in a high-school production depicted in the 2008 film Were the World Mine.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Hiran Abeysekera in the 2016 film.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- Avan Jogia, in the 2017 film.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- Ken Nwosu, in Upstart Crow in 2018.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Jonathan Whitesell plays a version of Robin Goodfellow in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina in 2020.<ref name="Refinery">Template:Cite web</ref>
Theatre
- Gertrud Eysoldt, first on 10 April, 1893 at the Riga City Theater, and later in Max Reinhardt's 1905 production in Berlin.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Frederick Peisley in Donald Wolfit's production in 1947.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- Adam Darius, with the Stora Teatern in Göteborg, Sweden in 1961.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- John Kane, with The Royal Shakespeare Company in 1970.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Puck is renamed "Dr. Wheelgood" in Diane Paulus's production The Donkey Show in 1999.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Karenssa LeGear in Schoenberg Hall's 2007 production.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Matthew Tennyson, with Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in 2013.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Kathryn Hunter in Julie Taymor's 2013 production for the Theatre for a New Audience.<ref name="TheaterMania">Template:Cite web</ref>
Painting and sculpture
- Puck (1789), a painting by Joshua Reynolds
- Puck (c. 1810–1820), a painting by Henry Fuseli.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Puck (c. 1855–1856), a marble sculpture by Harriet Hosmer<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- The Puck Building built in 1885–1888 in Nolita, New York City, features two naked statues of Puck by sculptor Henry Baerer.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The building is named after and housed the 19th-century humor magazine Puck. The magazine was named after the character, and used a depiction and a quote of him as a logotype.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Sculpture Puck, by Carl Andersson, bronze, 1912, in the Stockholm suburb of Midsommarkransen in Sweden.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</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>Template:Cite book</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 story "'A Midsummer Night's Dream", Puck and other fairies watch Shakespeare's company of actors perform the play.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
References
External links
Template:A Midsummer Night's Dream Template:Authority control