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THE DRAMATURGICAL AND THEATRICAL HERITAGE regarding how much she loves him and the following passage in the Old Testament: “The heart of fools is in their mouth: but the mouth of the wise is in their heart” (Ecclesiasticus 21:26).?® In contrast with Fansy and Foly in Magnyfycence, Lear’s Fool as a court jester does not display negative moral qualities, even if he strongly resembles their function as both a courtier and an entertainer. There is some direct textual evidence to prove that his appearance manifests his dramatic role as a jester. While talking to Lear, he refers to don his coxcomb, the cap of a professional fool,'*? which he actually offers to Kent saying: “why this fellow hath banisht two / on’s daughters, and done the third a blessing against his will, if / thou follow him, thou must needs weare my coxcomb.”!*° Moreover, the wording of the 1608 Quarto also makes it clear that he is even dressed in motley, the costume of the jester: “That Lord that counsail’d thee to giue away thy land, / Come place him heere by mee, doe thou for him stand, / The sweet and bitter foole will presently appeare, / The one in motley here, the other found out there.”' These two passages also show that he fulfills an interpretive function as the king’s close companion by referring both to himself and Lear as a fool. As an entertainer, the Fool keeps singing songs. Indeed, at one point, Lear even asks him, “When were you wont to be so full of songs sirra?” Like Foly, the Fool’s lines abound with distorted proverbs, riddles, and puns, but unlike the comic characters in The True Chronicle Historie of King Leir, the Fool contributes to the protagonist’s moral development and Lear’s recognition of his own folly. First, he boldly and rather unmannerly calls Lear a fool, explaining, “All thy other Titles thou hast giuen away, that thou wast borne with.” Yet, despite his audacity, the Fool remains by Lear’s side even in the storm, and although he is using figurative language, his utterance is based on rational arguments to protect Lear in the midst of his madness: “O Nunckle, Court holly water in a drie house / Is better then this raine water out a doore, / Good Nunckle in, and aske why thy daughters blessing, / Heers a night pities nether wise man nor foole.”'** Given his constant presence by Lear’s side, many critics have claimed that the fact that the Fool leaves the stage unnoticeably constitutes a major flaw in the play. Enid Welsford, however, offers a reasonable excuse for this departure: 188 Tbid., 14. 18° For the entry for “coxcomb,” the OED quotes a passage from a contemporaneous source, namely Edwards Webbe’s The rare and most wonderfull things which E. Webbe hath seene in his traviles 1590, which describes a fool’s clothing as: “With a fooles coate on my backe, halfe blew, half yellowe, and a cokescombe with three bels on my head.” See: “coxcomb” in Simpson-Weiner: The Oxford English Dictionary, n.p.n. Shak-speare: His True Chronicle, sig. C4v. Ibid., sig. C4v. 42 Tbid., sig. Dlr. 43 Ibid., sig. C4v-Dir. 144 Tbid., sig. FAr. 140 14 + 37 +
