Puck

Um, and she was writing in the '70s about, like, various folklore figures within, um, like, the countryside of England and Scotland.

Uh, I was orig- initially using her for research because, for the Puck story, 'cause, you know, she wrote about G- Robin Goodfellow and kind of the source of that and, like, how these stories remained within the culture.

And I encountered her talking about Jenny Greenteeth, and I'm like, "Oh, that's weird." And I saw a Brian Froud illustration of Jenny Greenteeth, which is deeply eerie and upsetting.

[laughs]

No,

P-U-C-K. Oh, like Midsummer Night's Dream.

Okay.

Or like a duck.

Pictures animation film Bad Fairies.

Jonathan Groff will voice Robin Goodfellow, Kylie Minogue voices Clowder the Cat Witch, and Catherine Tate is going to be the fairy godmother.

They join Erivo as Lee Jane Staplegun, Siriano Suling Bliss as Fei Jing, Dee Bradley Baker as Granby, and James Astor as Stickers.

The animated musical adventure, which is about a band of rebellious fairies determined to make a difference without playing by the typical rules, flies to theaters on May 27, 2027.

So, okay.

We meet this new guidance counselor named Mr. Goodfellow, who is obviously magic, that we the audience know.

That's...

Right.

Shakespeare sets up the enchanting and unpredictable ways of the fairies in this green world beyond the boundaries of the city.

However, Shakespeare also establishes how the fairy kingdom is inextricably intertwined with the world of the mortals, drawing upon the English folkloric tradition in his depiction of Robin Goodfellow, Puck, as a mischievous and capricious sprite, sometimes helpful and sometimes a lively trickster.

Moreover, the scene establishes the conflict dividing the fairies, which is the catalyst for the comic disorder, which will come to define the main plot of the play.

So a bit of a mouthful, but what are we setting up here? What are we talking about?

because Puck is a significant and individual character in the play, isn't he? So he speaks differently from the fairy.

So he speaks differently to the fairy.

And I think Shakespeare, again, not to go too much on context, there's no marks for context, but let's remember that Puck or Robin Goodfellow is an important part of the English folkloric tradition.

So actually, although this play is ostensibly set in Greece, it is actually, particularly the parts of the forest, the forest is the English forest.

The very bonfire was less splendid.

The little boys reserved their best crackers to be expended in his honor, and he gave them full sixpence more than anyone else.

He would like an illumination once a month, for it must not be concealed that in spite of gardening, of newspaper reading, of jaunting about in his little cart, and frequenting both church and meeting, our worthy neighbor begins to feel the weariness of idleness.

He hangs over his gate and tries to entice passengers to stop and chat.

Turning again up the hill, we find ourselves on that peculiar charm of English scenery, a green common, divided by the road, the right side fringed by hedgerows and trees, with cottages and farmhouses irregularly placed and terminated by a double avenue of noble oaks.

The left, prettier still, dappled by bright pools of water and islands of cottages and cottage gardens, and sinking gradually down to cornfields and meadows and an old farmhouse with pointed roofs and clustered chimneys, looking out from its blooming orchard and backed by woody hills.

The common is itself the prettiest part of the prospect, half covered with low firs, whose golden blossoms reflect so intensely the last beams of the setting sun, and alive with cows and sheep and two sets of cricketers, one of young men surrounded by spectators, some standing, some sitting, some stretched on the grass, all taking a delighted interest in the game, the other a merry group of little boys at a humble distance, for whom even cricket is scarcely lively enough, shouting, leaping, and enjoying themselves to their heart's content.

But cricketers and country boys are too important persons in our village to be talked of merely as figures in the landscape.

Larvae are said to be spirits that walk only by night.

Vincely Terry are such as was Robin Goodfellow that would supply the office of servants, specially of maids, as to make a fire in the morning, sweep the house, grind mustard and malt, draw water, etc.

These also rumble in houses, draw latches, go up and down stairs, etc.

Discovery of Witchcraft, London, 1584, page 521.

Quote, In John Malasius any man may read of devils in Sarmatia honored, called Cutri or Kibaldi, such as we pugs and hobgoblins call.

Their dwellings be in corners of old houses least frequented, or beneath stacks of wood, and these convented make fearful noise in the buttries and in dairies.

Robin Goodfellows some, some call them fairies.

In solitary rooms these uproars keep, and beat at doors to wake men from their sleep.