Letters on demonology and witchcraft. Addressed to J. G. Lockhart, Esq / by Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
- Walter Scott
- Date:
- 1831
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Letters on demonology and witchcraft. Addressed to J. G. Lockhart, Esq / by Sir Walter Scott, Bart. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![a Brownie, the selfish Puck was far from ])ractising this labour on the (hsinterested princi])le of the northern goblin, who, if raiment or food was left in his way, and for his use, departed from the family in displeasure. Robin Goodfellow, on the contrary, must have both his food and his rest, as Milton informs us, amid his other notices of country superstitions, in the poem of L’Allegro. And it is to be noticed, that he represents these tales of the fairies, told round the cottage hearth, as of a cheerful rather than a serioiis cast ; which illustrates what I have said concerning- the milder cliaracter of the southern superstitions, as compared with those of the same class in Scotland—the stories of which are for the most part of a frightful, and not seldom of a disgusting, quality. Poor Robin, however, between whom and King Oberon Shakspeare contrives to keep a degree of distinct subordination, which for a moment deceives us by its appeai-ance of reality, notwithstan(hng his turn for wit and humour, had been obscured b}’^ oblivion even in the days of Queen Bess. We have already seen, in a passage quoted from Reginald Scot, that the behef was fallen into abeyance ; that which follows from the same author, affinns more positively that Robin’s date was over. “ Know you this by the way, that heretofore Robin Goodfellow and Hobgoblin were as terrible, and also as ci’edible to the people, as hags and witches be now ; and, in time to come, a witch will be as much derided and condemned, and as clearly perceived, as the illusion and knavery of Robin Goodfellow, upon whom there have gone as many and as crethble tales as witchcraft, saving that it M](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22029667_0205.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
