The Holy State, Book 3 · Chapter 12
CHAP. 12. Of Naturall Fools.
THey have the cases of men, and little else of them besides speech and laughter. And indeed it may seem strange that Risibile being the propertie of man alone, they who have least of man should have most thereof, laughing without cause or measure.
Maxime 1Generally Nature hangs out a signe of simplicity in the face of a Fool; and there is enough in his countenance for an Hue and Crie to take him on suspicion: or else it is stamped on the figure of his body; their heads sometimes so little, that there is no room for wit; sometimes so long, that there is no wit for so much room.
2Yet some by their faces may passe currant enough till they cry themselves down by their speaking. Thus men know the bell is crackt, when they heare it toll'd; yet some that have stood out the assault of two or three questions, and have answered pretty rationally, have afterwards of their own accord betrayed and yielded themselves to be fools.
3The oathes and railing of Fools is oftentimes no fault of theirs but their teachers. The Hebrew word Barac signifies to blesse, and to curse; and 'tis the speakers pleasure if he use it in the worst acception. Fools of themselves are equally capable to pray and to swear; they therefore have the greatest sinne who by their example or otherwise teach them so to do.
One may get wisdome by looking on a Fool. 4In beholding him, think how much thou art beholden to him that suffered thee not to be like him: OnelyOnly Gods pleasure put a difference betwixt you. And consider that a Fool and a Wiseman are alike both in the starting-place, their birth, and at the post, their death; onelyonly they differ in the race of their lives.
It is unnaturall to laugh at a Naturall. 5How can the object of thy pity be the subject of thy pastime? I confesse sometimes the strangenesse, and, as I may say, witty simplicity of their actions may extort a smile from a serious man, who at the same time may smile at them and sorrow for them. But it is one thing to laugh at them in transitu, a snap and away, and another to make a set meal in jeering them, and as the Philistines to send for Sampson to make them sport.
To make a trade of laughing at a Fool is the highway to become one. 6Tullie confesseth that whilest he laughed at one *Epist. lib. 2. Epist. 9.Hircus a very ridiculous man, dum illum rideo pene factus sum ille: And one telleth us of Gallus Vibius, a man first of great eloquence, and afterwards of great madnesse, which seized not on him so much by accident as his own affectation, so long *Dum insanos imitatur, quod assimulabat ad vivum redegit, Rhodiginus Antiq. lib. 11. c. 13.mimically imitating mad men that he became one.
Many have been the wise speeches of fools, 7though not so many as the foolish speeches of wise men. Now the wise speeches of these silly souls proceed from one of these reasons: Either because talking much, and shooting often, they must needs hit the mark sometimes, though not by aim, by hap: Or else because a Fools mediocriter is optime; Sense from his mouth, a Sentence; and a tolerable speech cri'd up for an Apothegme: Or lastly, because God may sometimes illuminate them, and (especially towards their death) admit them to the possession of some part of reason. A poore begger in Paris being very hungry stayed so long in a Cooks shop, who was dishing up of meat, till his stomach was satisfied with the onelyonly smell thereof. The cholerick covetous Cook demanded of him to pay for his breakfast. The pooreman denyed it, and the controversie was referr'd to the deciding of the next man that should passe by, which chanced to be the most notorious Idiot in the whole City. He on the relation of the matter determined that the poore mans money should be put betwixt two empty dishes, and the Cook should be recompenced with the gingling of the poore mans money, as he was satisfied with the onelyonly smell of the Cooks meat. And this is affirmed by *Io. And. Panor. Barba. & alii indè ad nostram. Hiero. Franc. in lib. furios. de reg. juris ff. Boer. decis. 23 n 58. Mantic. de conject. ult. v. lib. 2. Tit. 5. n. 8. Corset. sing. verbi Testamentum.credible Writers, as no fable but an undoubted fact. More waggish was that of a rich landed Fool, whom a Courtier had begg'd, and carried about to wait on him. He coming with his master to a Gentlemans house where the picture of a Fool was wrought in a fair suit of arras, cut the picture out with a penknife. And being chidden for so doing, You have more cause (said he) to thank me, for if my master had seen the picture of the Fool, he would have begg'd the hangings of the King as he did my lands. When the standers by comforted a Naturall which lay on his death-bed, and told him that foure proper fellows should carry his body to the Church: Yea (quoth he) but I had rather by half go thither my self; and then prayed to God at his last gasp not to require more of him then he gave him.
As for a Changeling, which is not one child changed for another, but one child on a sudden much changed from it self; and for a Jester, which some count a necessary evil in a Court (an office which none but he that hath wit can perform, and and none but he that wants wit will perform) I conceive them not to belong to the present subject.