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puck
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An actor in a spritely costume sits in a cloth swing against a dark background. Text on screen reads, "A Midsummer Night's Dream: Puck's Final Monologue."
Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, illustration from Robin Goodfellow, his mad prankes and merry jests, 1628
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puck

fairy
Also known as: Hobgoblin, Robin Goodfellow
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An actor in a spritely costume sits in a cloth swing against a dark background. Text on screen reads, "A Midsummer Night's Dream: Puck's Final Monologue."
A Midsummer Night's Dream: Puck's final speech“If we shadows have offended, / Think but this, and all is mended…”
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puck, in medieval English folklore, 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 Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Meg Matthias.