A JESTER’S ESSAY ON FOOLS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 980, 28 January 1881, Page 3

A JESTER’S ESSAY ON FOOLS.

, Mr U a’lott, tlitj “Q iiirtu 1 ) Jc3 l pr," rtf. dro>»in ; ' his audience at Koitli’s Cirmfs. D vemlior ia«', dclivere'l him-n'f after this fashion The. o nut er was a character on tho (treat stage of Ufo. or I ho ■ 1 raiua so much miaun lorstoml as the. o.ie I am on. deavmiriiig to pnaitny. It is coimrallv j aappuaed that tho ciuwn or thu fool of the

olden time was a low, illiterate buffoon, who delighted to throw his limbs into hmvihle contortions, to wallow out his tonguo and roll his eyes, and as Shakespeare says, ‘ commit such fantastic tricks before high Heaven as to make the angels weep.' But sui-h is not the fact. The fool of the ancient day was a scholar and a gentleman, when the kings and queens of his country could neither road nor write. Besides I his, the c’own or fool had a higher and a holier province. He Was the pioneer Of human intelligence and manly independence. It was he who first stood up for the downtrodden rights and privileges of the great human family. You see the fool was kept by kings, queens, and courts to amuse them in their hod'S Of leisilro anil it was he who, under the garb of laughter, dared to tell those wholesome truths to the verv teeth of tyrants that greater men would have lost their heads for. But now ‘Othello’s occupation's gone.’ It, is no use being a fool nowadays—not. it, indeed 1 Five hundred years ago—that was the time to be a fool ! In those days fools were great men ; but things are altered now, for great inert are fools. In the olden time fools were well paid ; but now. like every other trade, profession, or business, them is so much opposition, and so'many people make fools of themselves for nothing, that the trade is not worth following. N iw, Shakespeare says, ‘ Bet me p'ay the fool | with mirth- ahd laughter let old wrinkles come ; and rather let ray liver heat with wine than my heart (tool with mortifying groans,’. Now, there is a reason for hung a fool, hut the generality of fools are fools because they have no reason. Rut, lam a fool, and I give you a reason for being a fool. Conseqftent.lv, being a fool an 1 ha- ing a reason, I am a reasonable fool Rut there are so mwy kinds of fools There ate fools .in their oym right, and fools in their own wrong. . There are fools for nothing and there arc fools for interest. Now, I am a fool, for interest—that is, 1 am a fool, and t find it. to my interest to be a fool. Therefore, bein' a fool and having an interest-, I ought to be considered an interested and an interesting fool. At the same tim«. I must be a fool for principle, because if I had no prineioal I coiild have no interest, because interest is derived from principal. And when I show I have an interest, that proves T have a princio'e ; cnnseqne tly, Tam a princinled fool. But there are ol 1 fools and young fools ; satirical fools and drunken fools, who are the worst of all fools. Yes, if T ha-1 a voice that would e -ho from hill to hi'l. and vibrate through every valley, T would ery aloud, wi'hnut the fear of contralict.ion. that, dm like a fno's are the worst of all fools, excent, teetotal fools That reminds me of what 1 saw in Manchester the other dav. [n one gutter I saw' a pig, in the other the semh'ance of a man. The pig was sober, the ram was drunk. The nig had a ring in his nose, the other animal had one on his finger. The pig grunted; so did the man; anl 1 said aland ‘We are known by the company We keep,’ And the pig heard me and walked away, ashamed to he semi in the company of a drunken man. Shakespeare save, ‘ All’s well that ends well,’ so I finish with the pig, because 1 think the tale ends well when there is a pig at the cud of it."— Era.