Annotation:Robin Goodfellow
X:1 % T:Merry Pranks of Robin Goodfellow, The T:Dulcina R:march Z:2009 John Chambers <jc:trillian.mit.edu> B:Chappell - Popular Music of the Olden Times (1859) S:Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1720 M:C L:1/8 K:C [|c2ed c2G2 | E2C2 G2G2 | g2G2 d2ed | B2AG G4 | c2ed c2G2 | E2C2 G2G2 | c3G A2GF | E2DC C4 || || E2A^G A2c2 | c2A2 B2e2 | e2A2 fedc | BcBA A4 | c2ed c2G2 | E2C2 G2G2 | c3G A2GF | E2DC C4 ||
The Encyclopædia Britannica [1] explains: "Puck, in medieval English folklore, is a malicious fairy or demon. In Old and Middle English the word meant simply “demon.” In Elizabethan lore he was a mischievous, brownielike fairy also called Robin Goodfellow, or Hobgoblin. As one of the leading characters in William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Puck boasts of his pranks of changing shapes, misleading travelers at night, spoiling milk, frightening young girls, and tripping venerable old dames. The Irish pooka, or púca, and the Welsh pwcca are similar household spirits."
The air appears in Thomas D'Urfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy (1720).