The Fool

The Fool

1. Truth-teller

   • 'The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long That it's had it head bit off by it young / So out went the candle and were left darkling.'
   • 'Truth's a dog that must to kennel; he must be whipped out, when the Lady Brach may stand by the fire and stink.'
   • 'Now thou art an O without a figure; I am better than thou art now. I am a fool, thou art nothing.'
   • Lear: 'Who is it can tell me who I am?' The Fool: 'Lear's shadow.'

2. Enables insight and empathy to come from Lear

   • Lear: 'Come on, my boy. How dost my boy? Art cold?'

3. Comic Relief

   • 'They'll have me whipped for speaking true, thou'It have me whipped for lying, and sometimes I am whipped for holding my peace.'

4. Wisdom

   • To Kent: 'Let go thy hold when a great wheel (Lear) runs down a hill lest it brake thy neck with following it, but the great one that goes upward, let him draw thee after.'