Puck?
Okay so the past few days my son has been saying a word that vaguely sounds like “puck.” I had no idea what he was trying to reference, so I began to ask him, when he said, “puck,” what he was talking about:
“Is this puck?” I would say, pointing to various objects. He did not seem to respond in a way that meant yes, so I moved on. So I re-worded my question to “Who is Puck?” and pointed to various stuffed animals and even pictures of his Daddy. So finally we landed on a picture of Grandpa Ray, and I said, “Who is this?” and Cyrus responded loudly with a smile, “PUCK!”
From William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream
The audience is introduced to Puck in Act II Scene I when one of Titania’s fairies encounters Puck and says:
Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Call’d Robin Goodfellow: are not you he
That frights the maidens of the villagery;
Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
Are not you he? (Act ii., Scene i.)