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Fool, The
Fool, The (1922), a melodrama by Channing Pollock.[Times Square Theatre, 360 perf.] Parishioners at New York's Church of the Nativity are disturbed by their new assistant rector, Daniel Gilchrist ( James Kirkwood), who has condemned the fancy Christmas decorations. He has also read contributors to the church a lecture on the rich man entering heaven, and spoken of “ill gotten gains.” As if that were not enough, he has welcomed poor worshipers into the upper‐class church and has even given his own overcoat to an impoverished Jew who was shivering in the cold. The rector, Rev. Wadham ( Arthur Eliot), has warned Gilchrist that he courts trouble. “What would happen if anybody really tried to live like Christ?” Gilchrist asks. Wadham replies it cannot be done. Gilchrist is dismissed and takes his private ministry to striking workers and opens a mission, only to be beaten by hoodlums. Although he helps the crippled woman Mary ( Sara Sothern) walk again and saves a marriage, he continues to be assailed as a “nut.” Only the woman whose paralysis he cured retains faith in him. Pollock was turned down by virtually every important producer, until he persuaded Arch Selwyn to back the play. When it opened to generally unfavorable notices, Selwyn was ready to close it, but Pollock, who owned 25 percent of the work, would not let him. Pollock began a primitive publicity campaign, writing letters, making speeches, and printing advertisements with favorable remarks from the few notables who had liked the play. The publicity turned business around. According to Pollock, “Before the end of the season, seven companies were touring . . . reaching audiences of not less than 85,000 people each week, or close to five million theatregoers in a single season.”
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Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Fool, The." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Fool, The." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-FoolThe.html Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Fool, The." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-FoolThe.html |
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fool
fool1 / foōl/ • n. a person who acts unwisely or imprudently; a silly person: what a fool I was to do this. ∎ hist. a jester or clown, esp. one retained in a noble household. ∎ inf. a person devoted to a particular activity: he is a running fool. ∎ archaic a person who is duped. • v. [tr.] trick or deceive (someone); dupe: he fooled nightclub managers into believing he was a successful businessman she had been fooling herself in thinking she could remain indifferent. ∎ [intr.] act in a joking, frivolous, or teasing way: I shouted at him impatiently to stop fooling around. ∎ [intr.] (fool around) engage in casual or extramarital sexual activity. • adj. inf. foolish or silly: that damn fool waiter. PHRASES: be no (or nobody's) fool be a shrewd or prudent person. make a fool of trick or deceive (someone) so that they look foolish. ∎ (make a fool of oneself) behave in an incompetent or inappropriate way that makes one appear foolish. play (or act) the fool behave in a playful or silly way. you could have fooled me! used to express cynicism or doubt about an assertion: “Fun, was it? Well, you could have fooled me!”PHRASAL VERBS: fool with toy with; play idly with: I like fooling with cameras. ∎ tease (a person): we've just been fooling with you. fool2 • n. chiefly Brit. a cold dessert made of puréed fruit mixed or served with cream or custard: raspberry fool with cream. |
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"fool." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "fool." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-fool.html "fool." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-fool.html |
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fool
fool a fool and his money are soon parted proverbial saying, late 16th century.
a fool at forty is a fool indeed proverbial saying, early 16th century, from the poet Edward Young (1683–1765), and meaning that someone who has not learned wisdom by the age of forty will never learn it. A mid 16th-century sermon has the same idea in reference to the age of forty-one, ‘And he that hath not learned some experience or practice and trade of the world by that age will never be wise.’ a fool may give a wise man counsel sometimes used as a warning against overconfidence in one's judgement; saying recorded from the mid 14th century. fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me if someone is deceived twice their own stupidity is to blame; saying recorded from the early 17th century (in the earliest versions, the verb is deceive). fool's errand a task or activity that has no hope of success. fool's gold a brassy yellow mineral that can be mistaken for gold, especially pyrite. fool's paradise a state of happiness based on a person's not knowing about or denying the existence of potential trouble. there's no fool like an old fool often used to suggest that the folly of an older person is particularly worthy of castigation. The saying is recorded from the mid 16th century. see also fools, a man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client, more people know Tom Fool than Tom Fool knows. |
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ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "fool." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "fool." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-fool.html ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "fool." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-fool.html |
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fool
fool or court jester, a person who entertains with buffoonery and an often caustic wit. In all countries from ancient times and extending into the 18th cent., mental and physical deformity provided amusement. Attached to noble and royal courts were dwarfs, cripples, idiots, albinos, and freaks. The medieval court fool was seldom mentally deficient. For the freedom to indulge in satire, tricks, and repartee, many men of keen insight and caustic wit obtained powerful patronage by assuming the role of fool. This role was played in the courts of the East, in ancient Greece and Rome, and in the court of Montezuma. The clown or jester was common in Elizabethan drama (e.g., the Fool in King Lear ), and by donning the fool's garb the actor gained the freedom of the fool. His costume, which was hung with bells, usually consisted of a varicolored coat, tight breeches with legs of different colors—occasionally a long petticoat was worn—and a bauble (mock scepter) and a cap which fitted close to the head or fell over the shoulders in the form of asses' ears. Till Eulenspiegel and Robin Goodfellow are mythical fools.
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"fool." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "fool." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-fool.html "fool." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-fool.html |
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Fool
Fool, licensed buffoon of the medieval Feast of Fools, later an important member of the sociétés joyeuses of medieval France, not to be confused with the Court Fool. The traditional costume of the Fool, who was associated with such folk festivals as the morris dance and the mumming play (especially the Wooing Ceremony), was a hood with horns or ass's ears, and sometimes bells, covering the head and shoulders; a parti-coloured jacket and trousers, usually tight fitting; and sometimes a tail. He carried a marotte or bauble, either a replica of a fool's head on a stick or a bladder filled with dried peas, and he sometimes had a wooden sword or ‘dagger of lath’, like the ‘Old Vice’ in the morality plays, from whom he may have borrowed it. It is surmised that this costume was a survival of the old custom of animal disguising, when worshippers in primitive religious ceremonies wore the head and skin of a sacrificial animal, while the ass's ears were taken from the donkey who figured in the Feast of Fools.
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PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Fool." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Fool." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-Fool.html PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Fool." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-Fool.html |
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fool, the
fool, the, a character appearing in various forms in English drama, most notably among Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The character has a variety of origins, from the medieval court jester to the licensed clown of the Feast of Fools. He appears in numerous incarnations in Shakespeare as the simpleton (the clown in The Winter's Tale), the rogue (Autolycus), and the wise court jester (Touchstone in As You Like It). He is also related to the Arlecchino of the commedia dell'arte.
Ri Tarlton played the main comic parts in the Queen's Company of players until his death in 1588. In Shakespeare's company the part of the fool was played by W. Kemp until his retirement c.1599, when he was replaced by Robert Armin, a somewhat more subtle actor for whom Shakespeare probably wrote the more complex parts of the fool in King Lear and Feste in Twelfth Night. |
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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "fool, the." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "fool, the." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-foolthe.html MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "fool, the." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-foolthe.html |
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fool
fool. Courtly society in medieval Ireland, Scotland, and Wales included jesters, buffoons, and mimics for entertainment; as conventional figures in early narratives they often, like King Lear's Fool, speak more wisely than their masters. Lomna reports the adultery of Fionn mac Cumhaill's wife. Mac Glas, fool of Máel Fothartaig, is killed with his master. Do Dera tries to save his master, Lugaid mac Con, by impersonating him in battle. Irish distinguishes between the professional fool [OIr. drúth] and the more modern person of poor judgement [ModIr. amadán], although English does not. The Irish and Scottish Gaelic folk figure Amadán Mór [Big Fool] is heroic; see EACHTRA AN AMADÁIN MHÓIR [The Adventure of the Big Fool].
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JAMES MacKILLOP. "fool." A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JAMES MacKILLOP. "fool." A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O70-fool.html JAMES MacKILLOP. "fool." A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. 2004. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O70-fool.html |
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fool
fool1
A. one deficient in judgement or sense XIII; professional jester, clown XIV; B. adj. foolish XIII; now only (exc. dial.) as attrib. use of the sb. ME. fōl sb. and adj. — OF. fol (mod. fou mad) :- L. follis bellows, inflated ball, (later fig.) ‘windbag’, empty-headed person. Hence fool vb. play the fool, make a fool of XVI. foolery XVI. foolhardy XIII. — OF. folhardi ‘foolish-bold’. foolscap (fool's cap) cap of a professional fool; folio paper of a kind that orig. bore a watermark representing a fool's cap. XVII. |
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T. F. HOAD. "fool." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. T. F. HOAD. "fool." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-fool.html T. F. HOAD. "fool." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-fool.html |
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fool
fool A fool was a person without a proper gift of intelligence (Luke 12: 20; Rom. 1: 21; Eph. 5: 15) but also one who was impious and blasphemous, as usually in the OT (e.g. Ps. 14: 1). Nevertheless in Matt. 5: 22 Jesus condemns the expression of contempt implied by rebuking someone as a fool.
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W. R. F. BROWNING. "fool." A Dictionary of the Bible. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. W. R. F. BROWNING. "fool." A Dictionary of the Bible. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O94-fool.html W. R. F. BROWNING. "fool." A Dictionary of the Bible. 1997. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O94-fool.html |
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fool
fool2 †clotted cream XVI; dish composed of crushed fruit with cream, etc. XVIII. perh. transf. use of prec. suggested by trifle.
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Cite this article
T. F. HOAD. "fool." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. T. F. HOAD. "fool." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-fool1.html T. F. HOAD. "fool." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-fool1.html |
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fool
fool A purée of fruit with cream or custard.
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DAVID A. BENDER. "fool." A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. DAVID A. BENDER. "fool." A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O39-fool.html DAVID A. BENDER. "fool." A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. 2005. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O39-fool.html |
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