{"id":30575,"date":"2016-07-07T10:19:18","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T14:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/?p=30575"},"modified":"2016-07-07T10:19:18","modified_gmt":"2016-07-07T14:19:18","slug":"what-fools-we-mortals-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/2016\/07\/what-fools-we-mortals-be\/","title":{"rendered":"What Fools We Mortals Be"},"content":{"rendered":"

By:\u00a0 Sydney Vollmer<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Rackham,<\/a>We all remember Puck from A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em>. \u00a0What a little imp. \u00a0Well, actually, he isn\u2019t quite an imp. \u00a0He\u2019s more of a hobgoblin. \u00a0In fact, Puck is less a name than a species. \u00a0Throughout mythology, \u201cPuck\u201d is interchangeable with \u201cRobin Goodfellow.\u201d \u00a0The names come in different forms among various languages, but they all translate roughly to either \u201cpixie\u201d or \u201chobgoblin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em>, poor Puck is given orders to put spells on people he doesn\u2019t recognize and things go awry. \u00a0His willingness to perform, and then correct, shows his true obedience to King Oberon. \u00a0However, if you aren\u2019t King of the Fairies, a puck may not be as obedient. \u00a0Pucks have a knack for being temperamental. \u00a0It\u2019s said that they\u2019ve been known to do some minor household chores if they take a liking to you, but the helpfulness stops as soon as you offend them.<\/p>\n

\"Puck<\/a><\/p>\n

Jump on my train of thought for a second. I promise it ties in.<\/p>\n

My family always loses socks. \u00a0It\u2019s a common problem, really. \u00a0In our house, we call it the sock monster. \u00a0He lives in our dryer and sneaks around our basement where we do our laundry. \u00a0Two socks go into the dryer\u2014only one comes out. \u00a0Currently, we have a garbage bag full of socks just waiting for their mates to return. \u00a0Along the lines of a \u201csock monster,\u201d my mom also believes in the \u201clittle elves.\u201d She detests cleaning, so whenever she gets a chance, she mutters about wishing the elves would come in at night while we\u2019re sleeping to do the tidying for her.\u00a0 After thinking about pucks, I\u2019m pretty sure this is what happened:<\/p>\n

\"Puck,<\/a>The pucks, or hobgoblins, were leaving us alone. \u00a0They were probably tired of helping out over the years, so they started minding their own business.\u00a0 They were relaxing in their own homes and finally got around to reading the Harry Potter series. \u00a0The part where Dobby is given a sock and becomes free really stuck with them. \u00a0Although they had already self-proclaimed their freedom, when they got wind of my mom saying she wanted help from the elves, it probably just ticked them off. \u00a0(It\u2019s probably not that uncommon of a plea, just like the sock problem is pretty common. \u00a0Do you see where I\u2019m going with this yet?) They did not want to be taken for granted. \u00a0So, in a protest, they started coming into homes again. Not only were they not cleaning, but they started a rebellion by taking our socks! \u00a0They didn\u2019t need to take whole pairs. \u00a0No. \u00a0They just need the one sock to be considered free\u2026 that, and they knew that just taking one sock is enough to be irritating and alert us humans that something isn\u2019t quite right. \u00a0To this day, it\u2019s probably a rite of passage in their culture to steal your sock. \u00a0Just imagine that 16- year old puck so excited to steal his very own human sock and be considered a free adult in his world! \"Puck,<\/a>Needless to say, I think their days of housework and fixing flowery spells are long over. \u00a0Enjoy your mismatched socks or your cold foot. I don\u2019t think this tradition of theirs is going anywhere.<\/p>\n

If I have piqued your interest in further exploring A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em> or mythology and the world of the fantastic on the broad spectrum in any way, know that our library is here to assist you. Our Shakespeare collection is extensive, but we also have many volumes on folklore, fairies, and other whimsical subjects. Our hours are Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm. Call us at 513.556.1959 or send us an email at archives@ucmail.uc.edu<\/a>. Don\u2019t forget to check out our Shakespeare quadricentennial page on the Archives & Rare Books Library website at http:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/shakespeare400\/ <\/a>or to like our Facebook page at https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ArchivesRareBooksLibraryUniversityOfCincinnati\/<\/a> where there is always something Shakespearean being posted.\u00a0 You can also find us on Twitter at @ARBLibrary.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By:\u00a0 Sydney Vollmer We all remember Puck from A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream. \u00a0What a little imp. \u00a0Well, actually, he isn\u2019t quite an imp. \u00a0He\u2019s more of a hobgoblin. \u00a0In fact, Puck is less a name than a species. \u00a0Throughout mythology, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,83],"tags":[1133,67,742,877],"class_list":["post-30575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arb","category-langsam-library","tag-a-midsummer-nights-dream","tag-rare-books","tag-shakespeare","tag-shakespeare-400"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}