Trickster.
Origin
Public domain comic appearance
World Famous Stories #1, Croydon, 1945. {In the public domain according to the Hänsel and Gretel page. Reliable?}
Public domain literary appearances
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream [A Midſommer Nights Dreame], play by William Shakespeare, ca. 1596, first folio published 1600. (Internet Archive)
• “The Mad Merry Pranks of Robin Goodfellow,” broadside ballad, 1600s. {Ritson, 208, 418.}
• “The Shepherd’s Dream,” Albion’s England, by William Warner, 1612. (Internet Archive) {Ritson, 362.}
• Love Restored, masque by Ben Jonson, 1612, published in The Workes of Benjamin Jonson, 1616, 203. (Internet Archive)
• “Of Ghoaſts and Goblins,” More Knaves Yet? The Knaves of Spades and Diamonds, by Samuel Rowlands, ca. 1613. (Internet Archive) (Internet Archive) {Ritson, 218.}
• Nymphidia, by Michael Drayton, 1627. (Internet Archive) {Ritson, 239.}
• Robin Goodfellow; His Mad Prankes, and Merry Jests …, 1628. (Internet Archive) {Ritson, 173.} Presents an origin story in which Robin has a human mother and an unspecified fairy father of high standing. He is raised by his mother but runs away to avoid domestic corporal punishment for his misbehavior. He discovers that he is a shapeshifter and that he can make anything he wishes appear before him, and has a series of adventures utilizing those powers. Vengeful. “Ho, ho, hoh!” Multiple pranks and schemes.
• The Hierarchy of the Blessed Angels, by Thomas Heywood, 1635. (Internet Archive) {Ritson, 321.}
• The Midnight’s Watch, 1643. >(Internet Archive)< {Ritson, 323.}
• “L’allegro,” Poems of Mr. John Milton …, by John Milton, 1645, 30. (Internet Archive) (Internet Archive)
• “Puck’s Pranks on Twelfth Day,” Mercurius fumigosus, 3–10 Jan. 1655. {Ritson, 337.}
• Grim the Collier of Croydon, by I. T., in Gratiae theatrales; or, A Choice Ternary of English Plays, 1662. (Internet Archive)
• Democritus in London, with the Mad Pranks and Comical Conceits of Motley and Robin Good‐Fellow …, by George Daniel, 1852. (Internet Archive) (Internet Archive)
• “Puck’s Work,” by Gail Hamilton, Our Young Folks, vol. 2, no. 2, Feb. 1866, 65–69. (Internet Archive)
• “Poor Puck!,” by Mary A. Lathbury, St. Nicholas, May 1875, 432. (Internet Archive)
• Oberon and Puck: Verses Grave and Gay, by Helen Gray Cone, 1885. (Internet Archive)
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Other Stories, by E. Nesbit, 1890. (Internet Archive)
• Puck of Pook’s Hill, by Rudyard Kipling, 1906. (Internet Archive)
• Rewards and Fairies, by Rudyard Kipling, 1910. (Internet Archive)
• Robin Goodfellow and Other Fairy Plays for Children, by Netta Syrett, 1918. (Internet Archive)
Public domain film appearance
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by Eugene Mullin, dir. Charles Kent, prod. J. Stuart Blackton, Vitagraph Studios, 1909. Gladys Hulette plays Puck. (Wikimedia Commons) (YouTube)
Notes
Puck is sometimes depicted as an adult male fairy, often a young one, and sometimes as a child, but is also conflated with a putto or a faun in some public domain works.
The magazine Puck, which used the character’s name and likeness in its logo, was published from 1871 to 1918, so all issues (of the original US series) are now in the public domain.(There was a UK version from 1889 to 1890.) The character appeared in at least one political cartoon in addition to the logo.
The Gilberton, DC/Vertigo and IDW versions of Puck are not in the public domain.
Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puck_(mythology)> (folkloric)
Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puck_(A_Midsummer_Night%27s_Dream)> (Shakespearean)
Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puck_in_popular_culture> (in popular culture)
Comic Vine <http://www.comicvine.com/puck/4005-9769/>
IMDB <http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0004064/>