What is this? Remember it, from the end pages of Endless Nights?

Chances are, it's Neil's invention. I'm guess it's related to the ghostly black dogs that show up on the estates of certain British families, presaging a death in the family.

It's Puck's final speech from A Midsummer Night's Dream, a Shakespearean play; in it, Puck is effectively talking to the audience about what they have watched. From memory, the whole thing goes like this:

If we shadows have offended
Think but this, and all is mended:
That you have but slumbered here
Whilst these visions did appear
And this weak and idle theme
No more yielding; but a dream.
Gentles, do not reprehend
If you pardon, we will mend
And as I am an honest Puck
If we have unearned luck
Now to scape the serpent's tongue
We will make amends ere long
Or else the Puck a liar call-
And so Good Night unto you all
Give me your hand if we be friends
And Robin shall restore amends.

I believe he's asking what the Brotherhood of the Black Dog is, and the Midsummer Night's speech is his sig, but that is a fabulous rendering from memory.

Yes, Dweller In Darkness. And I am a she, by the way.

Hi. Here in the UK the term "black dog" is sometimes used as a euphemism for depression. I'm only speculatng here but wondr whether the fact that the term is used of Barron Storrey and that he worked on the Despair story in Endless Nights is Gaiman's way of saying Storrey is suffers from depression. I may be wildly off beam here but as a sufferer myself can identify with the storyline.

All the best.

Ok, I just want to say that I totally just joined this website because I googled "brotherhood of the black dog" and this page came up - first thing.
I believe Herr Metamorphose of Great Britain is correct. Wasn't it Churchill who referred to his depression as a large black dog? This also implies that Niel, too, may be a member of the brotherhood. In any case, I certainly am, and I appreciate it very much that they might refer to it even ever so obliquely. It is a subject about which, sometimes, the less said the better. Certainly Neil's work is highly respectful of and compassionate towards those with mental health issues - and we appreciate it.