Goodfellow

( Robin ), son of King Oberon. When six years old, he was so mischievous that his mother threatened to whip him, and he ran away; but falling asleep, his father told him he should have anything he wished for, with power to turn himself into any shape, so long as he did harm to none but knaves and queens. His first exploit was to turn himself into a horse, to punish a churl, whom he conveyed into a great plash of water and left there, laughing, as he flew off “Ho, ho, ho!” He afterwards went to a farm-house, and taking a fancy to a maid, does her work during the night. The maid, watching him, and observing him rather bare of clothes, provides him with garments, which he puts out, laughing “Ho, ho, ho!” He next changes himself into a Will-o-the-wisp, to mislead a party of merry-makers, and having misled them all night, he left them at daybreak, with a “Ho, ho, ho!” At another time, seeing a fellow ill-using a maiden, he changed himself into a hare, ran between his legs, and then growing into a horse, to ed him into a hedge, laughing, “Ho, ho, ho!”— The Mad Pranks and Merry Jests of Robin Goodfellow (1580). (Percy Society, 1841). Goodfellow ( Robin ), a general name for any domestic spirit, as imp, urchin, elf, hag, fay, Kit-wi’-the-can´stick, spoorn, man-i’-the-oak, Puck, hobgoblin, Tom-tumbler, bug, bogie, Jack-o’-lantern, Friar’s lantern, Will-o’-the-wisp, Ariel, nixie, kelpie, etc., etc. A bigger kind than these German kobolds is that called with us Robin Goodfellows, that would in those superstitious superstitious times grind corn for a me of milk, cut wood, or do any manner of drudgery work.... These have several names... but we commonly call them Pucks.—Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy , 47. ⁂ The Goodfellows, being very numerous, can hardly be the same as Robin, son of Oberon, but seem to obtain the name because their character was similar, and, indeed, Oberon’s son must be included in the generic name.