Puck (Shakespeare) - Definition

Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow, is a character in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Puck is a mischief maker in the play, but a loyal servant of Oberon, king of the fairies. At Oberon's command, he puts love-in-idleness juice on the eyes of Titania, the queen of the fairies, so she will fall in love with the next male she sees, and on the eyes of Demetrius, so that he will return the love of Helena. The first task he completes with admirable success, leaving Titania besotted with rude mechanical Bottom the Weaver (who furthermore has the head of a donkey following an earlier encounter with Puck); but the second he messes up (partly due to incomplete instructions from Oberon), using the potion on Hermia's true-love Lysander instead of on Demetrius, and causing much confusion until things are straightened out.

See also: Puck (mythology)