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AHobbididance, orHoberdidance, was a malevolentsprite mentioned in the traditional Englishmorris dance and in Shakespeare's King Lear play. It was borrowed from Samuel Harsnett's Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures [1603]. It helped scholars to set the earliest composition date for the play.[1]
Poor Tom hath been scared out of his good wits: bless thee, good man’s son, from the foul fiend! Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lust, as Obidicut; Hobbididance, prince of dumbness; Mahu, of stealing; Modo, of murder; and Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and mowing; who since possesses chambermaids and waiting-women. So, bless thee, master!
— King Lear, Act IV, Scene I
1.https://shakespeare-navigators.ewu.edu/king_lear/King_Lear_Note_3_4_144.html2. "Hobbididance".Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 2nd ed. 1989.
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