BRIGGS, K.M. The Anatomy of Puck: An Examination of Fairy Beliefs among Shakespeare’s Contemporaries and Successors.

(London): Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1959. First edition. Hardcover.  22cm by 14.3cm. xi, 284 pages. A classic scholarly study of English fairy lore and supernatural belief in the Elizabethan and Stuart periods. Briggs analyses literary, historical, and folkloric sources to reconstruct how fairies, spirits, and magical beings were conceived in popular and learned culture, with particular attention to their appearance in Shakespeare and later dramatists. Includes detailed notes, bibliography, and index.  A very good copy in dustwrapper.