Etymologically Alberich is composed of
_alb_ = elf and _rich_ = king. The name Oberon appears first in English
literature in Lord Berners' translation of _Huon of Bordeaux_ (c. 1534),
and afterwards in Spenser[27] and in Robert Greene's play _James IV_, which
was acted in 1589.[28] But the king of the fairies in Chaucer[29] is Pluto,
and the queen Proserpine.
_Titania._ Proserpine is the wife of Pluto (in Greek, form, Persephone,
wife of Dis). In Elizabethan times, Campion's charming poem "Hark, all you
ladies that do sleep"[30] keeps the name of "the fairy-queen Proserpina."
Shakespeare appears to have taken the name Titania from Ovid,[31] who uses
it as an epithet of Diana, as being the sister of Sol or Helios, the
Sun-god, a Titan. Scot, in his _Discovery of Witchcraft_,[32] gives Diana
as one of the names of the "lady of the fairies"; and James I, in his
_Demonology_ (1597) refers to a "fourth kind of sprites, which by the
Gentiles was called Diana and her wandering court, and amongst us called
the Phairie."
Curiously enough in Shakespeare's most famous description of the Fairy
Queen, she is called Queen Mab;[33] this is said to be of Celtic
derivation. Mercutio's catalogue of Mab's attributes and functions
corresponds closely with the description of Robin Goodfellow.
_Puck_ is strictly not a proper name; and in the quartos and folios of _A
Midsummer-Night's Dream_, Puck, Robin, and Robin Goodfellow are used
indiscriminately.
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