fool

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fool

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

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.

Bibliography: See B. Swain, Fools and Folly (1932); E. Welsford, The Fool (1936, repr. 1961); S. Billington, A Social History of the Fool (1984).

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"fool." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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fool, the

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | | © The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature 2003, originally published by Oxford University Press 2003. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

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. 12 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "fool, the." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (November 12, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-foolthe.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "fool, the." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved November 12, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-foolthe.html

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fool

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology | 1996 | | © The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology 1996, originally published by Oxford University Press 1996. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

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. 12 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

T. F. HOAD. "fool." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (November 12, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-fool.html

T. F. HOAD. "fool." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved November 12, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-fool.html

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