Shakespeare's Clowns and Fools | Gareth Lloyd Evans (essay date 1972)
Gareth Lloyd Evans (essay date 1972)
SOURCE: "Shakespeare's Fools: The Shadow and the Substance of Drama," in Shakespearian Comedy, Edward Arnold, 1972, pp. 142-59.
[In the essay below, Evans observes developments in Shakespeare's dramatic representation of the fool character as they coincide with the appearance of Robert Armin as a member of Shakespeare's acting company.]
I
In recent years increased attention has been paid by criticism to Shakespeare's Fools. This increase was, doubtless, fired by the excellently detailed and imaginatively presented work of Enid Welsford1 which showed the vast antecedents of the character both in art forms and in real life, and suggested its importance to a full understanding of the nature of Shakespeare's imagination. Later, Robert Goldsmith2 dealt shrewdly with the contradictory nature of the Fool—the contrapuntal effects of his drollery and sage comment. One of the...
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