Hobbididance, from the United Kingdom: what it is and what people believe

Hobbididance, also spelt Hoberdidance, is a spiteful sprite of traditional English morris dance. It appears in Shakespeare's King Lear as one of five fiends said to have entered Poor Tom, where it is titled prince of dumbness, and the name was borrowed from a book printed in 1603 by Samuel Harsnett.

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Also spelt Hoberdidance; in King Lear it is titled prince of dumbness.
Shakespeare borrowed the sprite's name from a book by Samuel Harsnett, printed in 1603.
The borrowing helped scholars fix the earliest date for the play, given as about 1606.
The sprite also belongs to the traditional English morris dance.
In the play it is one of five fiends said to have entered Poor Tom at once.

What it is

Hobbididance, written also as Hoberdidance, is a harmful sprite of English folk tradition. It is named in the morris dance, a traditional English dance, and it appears in William Shakespeare's King Lear, a play of about 1606. In that play a character called Poor Tom names the sprite among the fiends that have entered him, and gives it the rank of prince of dumbness, a title that ties the creature to a loss of speech. Shakespeare did not invent the name. He took it from a book printed in 1603 by Samuel Harsnett.

Where it comes from

The sprite reached the stage through print. Samuel Harsnett's work of 1603 supplied the name, and the play was performed a few years afterwards, around 1606. Inside the play the name stands with four others given to the fiends troubling Poor Tom. Because the borrowed name has a known publication date, it hands editors a fixed point, and it helped establish the earliest year in which the play could have been written. The sprite is also recorded in the morris dance, and the Oxford English Dictionary lists the word in its second edition of 1989.

Hobbididance, drawn and placed

Emblem With the feather shape. Drawn from this page, not a photograph.

Living
Revived
Fading
Historical
Legendary
Performed

Standing: Legendary Known from myth, story and legend rather than from recorded practice. This says whether people still do it, not whether it works.

A feather: used in cleansing and blessing in some traditions, worn as a sign of office, and carried as a charm.

Lineage: English morris dance tradition and the fiend lore of King Lear

Where it sits The tradition it belongs to, and when it is done.

At a glance: who, where and when

Peoples

English

What people believe

In King Lear, Poor Tom declares that five fiends have been in him at the same time. The list pairs each spirit with a fault: Obidicut with lust, Mahu with stealing, Modo with murder, Flibbertigibbet with mopping and mowing and with entering chambermaids and waiting-women. Hobbididance carries the title prince of dumbness. Read together, the names present bad conduct and the loss of speech as the marks left by unwelcome visitors.

How scholars and sceptics see it

For editors and historians of the text, the sprite is a dating clue. A name taken from a book printed in 1603 cannot belong to a play written earlier, so the borrowing marks the earliest possible moment of composition, and the play is put at about 1606. The Oxford English Dictionary, in its second edition of 1989, carries an entry for the word.

Compare and confuse

Two spellings are recorded, Hobbididance and Hoberdidance. In the play the sprite keeps company with four other fiends, each attached to a different fault, and all the names run together in one speech by Poor Tom. Flibbertigibbet, tied to mopping and mowing and to the possession of chambermaids and waiting-women, is the nearest neighbour in that list.

Questions people ask about Hobbididance

What is Hobbididance?

A spiteful sprite of English tradition, named in the morris dance and in Shakespeare's King Lear. In the play it is called prince of dumbness and listed among five fiends said to have entered the character Poor Tom.

Where does the name come from?

The play borrows it from a book that Samuel Harsnett published in 1603. The same sprite is also recorded in the traditional English morris dance, and it appears under the variant spelling Hoberdidance.

Why does the sprite matter for dating the play?

A name taken from a book of 1603 cannot appear in a play written before that year. The borrowing therefore gives the earliest possible date of composition, and it helped scholars place King Lear at about 1606.

Which other fiends are named with it?

Poor Tom's speech lists Obidicut for lust, Mahu for stealing, Modo for murder, and Flibbertigibbet for mopping and mowing, the last said to enter chambermaids and waiting-women. Hobbididance stands for dumbness.

Good reading and sources

Where this page comes from

The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Hobbididance", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). EveryJaadu rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.

It may contain mistakes. Names and customs differ from one community to the next, and some knowledge is closed to outsiders and left out here. This page describes belief and practice. It does not say that any of it works, it is not a how-to, and it is not medical advice. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-20.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.