File:Shakespeares "Puck" (24902094).jpg

Shakespeare’s imp “Puck” from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

---located outside the Folger Shakespeare Theatre, slyly eyeing the US Capitol Building

---art deco statue

---ironic overseer of this zone of pompous lawmakers, greedy lobbyists and naive interns

---plaque beneath the figure reads…”Lord, what fools these mortals be!”

---created by sculptor Brenda Putnam in the 1930’s

---damage to it from black gypsum encrusting the white marble stone, pollutants ate away at the stone, heat and cold cause cracks on the fairy’s all too-mortal-exterior, and a skate-boarder high-fived the statue knocking off its right hand

---Folger’s management alarmed by the deterioration brought it inside in 1999

---$500,000 for its restoration, the library and fans banded together to raise most of it

---one woman gave money since she had played “Puck” in her high school version of the play

---NY’er Peter Gazzola , who served as the model for Putnam’s “knavish sprite” 70+ years earlier also gave money for the restoration

---Curators restored the marble figure, cleaning it and replacing its right hand

---now renewed, the marble statue greets visitors inside