"And to oure sight as hit semeth: suththe God hath the mighte

"To yeven each a whit wit. welthe and his hele

"And suffreth such so gon, hit semeth to myn inwitt

"Hit arn as hus aposteles suche peeple oth' as his pʊye disciples." Whitaker's Edition, p. 152.

As knowledge and civilization increased, this wild fancy would disappear, but the practice founded upon it, would, from the force of habit, still subsist, till by degrees the place of the fool would be supplied by the licensed jester; and at last, this barbarous and absurd custom would be totally abolished.

That eagerness to become acquainted with futurity, which is confined to no period of the history of mankind, has led to every kind of irrational mode of divination, and to this perhaps among the rest. Nothing supernatural could be expected from a butcher or baker, or any one with whom the people were living in daily and familiar intercourse; but these unfortunate beings had nothing in common with the rest of the species; and their wild gestures and incoherent language would give them something of a mysterious character. From whence have the gipsies obtained the reputation of being fortune-tellers, but from their strange habits by which they are insulated from all around them? and why should the powers of witchcraft have been ascribed to miserable and decrepid old women, but because they have been driven into solitude by their poverty and infirmities?

The following extracts exhibit Mr. Douce's notions more particularly respecting the Fools in Shakspeare. BOSWELL.]

Two Gentlemen of Verona.

THE CLOWNS.-The character of Speed is that of a shrewd witty servant. Launce is something

different, exhibiting a mixture of archness and rustic simplicity. There is no allusion to dress, nor any other circumstance, that marks either of them as the domestic fool or jester.

Love's Labour's Lost.

THE CLOWN.-The clown in this play is a mere country fellow. The term fool, applied to him in Act V. Scene II. means nothing more than a silly fellow. He has not sufficient simplicity for a natural fool, nor wit enough for an artificial one.

Merchant of Venice.

01.

THE CLOWN.-There is not a single circumstance through the whole of this play which constitutes Lancelot an allowed fool or jester; and yet there is some reason for supposing that Shakspeare intended him as such, from his being called a patch a fool of Hagar's offspring, and in one place the fo It is not reasonable, however, to conclude that person like Shylock would entertain a domestic of this description; and it is possible that the foregoing terms may be merely designed as synonymous with the appellation of clown, as in Love's Labour's Lost. On the whole, we have here a proof that Shakspeare has not observed that nice discrimination of character in his clowns for which some have given him credit.

As You Like It.

THE CLOWN.-Touchstone is the domestic fool of Frederick the duke's brother, and belongs to the class of witty or allowed fools. He is threatened with the whip, a mode of chastisement which was often inflicted on this motley personage. His dress should be a party-coloured garment. He should occasionally carry a bauble in his hand, and wear

asses' ears to his hood, which is probably the head dress intended by Shakspeare, there being no allusion whatever to a cock's head or comb. The three-cornered hat which Touchstone is made to wear on the modern stage is an innovation, and totally unconnected with the genuine costume of the domestic fool.

Measure for Measure.

THE CLOWN.-The clown in this play officiates as the tapster of a brothel; whence it has been concluded that he is not a domestic fool, nor ought to appear in the dress of that character. A little consideration will serve to show that the opinion is erroneous, that this clown is altogether a domestic fool, and that he should be habited accordingly. In Act II. Sc. I. Escalus calls him a tedious fool, and Iniquity, a name for one of the old stage buffoons. He tells him that he will have him whipt, a punishment that was very often inflicted on fools. In Timon of Athens we have a strumpet's fool, and a similar character is mentioned in the first speech in Antony and Cleopatra. But if any one should still entertain a doubt on the subject, he may receive the most complete satisfaction by an attentive examination of ancient prints, many of which will furnish instances of the common use of the domestic fool in brothels. In Twelfth Night, Act IV. Sc. I. Sebastian mistakes the clown for such a character as that before us, and calls him a foolish Greek, a term that is very happily explained by Dr. Warburton, whose note both communicates and receives support on the present occasion.

Othello.

THE CLOWN.-He appears but twice in the Flay, and was certainly intended to be an allowed

or domestic fool in the service of Othello and Desdemona.

King Lear.

THE FOOL.-The fool in this play is the genuine domestic buffoon; but notwithstanding his sarcastical flashes of wit, for which we must give the poet credit, and ascribe them in some degree to what is called stage effect, he is a mere natural with a considerable share of cunning. Thus Edgar calls him an innocent, and every one will immediately distinguish him from such a character as Touchstone. His dress on the stage should be parti-coloured; his hood crested either with a cock's-comb to which he often alludes, or with the cock's head and neck. His bauble should have a head like his own with a grinning countenance, for the purpose of exciting mirth in those to whom he occasionally presents it.

The kindness which Lear manifests towards his fool, and the latter's extreme familiarity with his master in the midst of the most poignant grief and affliction, may excite surprise in those who are not intimately acquainted with the simple manners of our forefathers. An almost contemporary writer has preserved to us a curious anecdote of William duke of Normandy, afterwards William I. of England, whose life was saved by the attachment and address of his fool. An ancient Flemish chronicle among the royal MSS. in the British Museum, 16, F. iii., commences with the exile of Salvard lord of Roussillon and his family from Burgundy. In passing through a forest, they are attacked by a cruel giant, who kills Salvard and several of his people; his wife Emergard and a few others only escaping. This scene the illuminator of the manuscript, which is of the fifteenth century, has chosen to exhibit. He has represented Emergard as driven

away in a covered cart or waggon by one of the servants. She is attended by a female, and in the front of the cart is placed her fool, with a countenance expressive of the utmost alarm at the impending danger. Nor would it be difficult to adduce, if necessary, similar instances of the reciprocal affection between these singular personages and those who retained them.

All's Well that Ends Well.

THE CLOWN.-He is a domestic fool of the same kind as Touchstone.

Twelfth-Night.

THE CLOWN.-The clown in this play is a domestic or hired fool, in the service of Olivia. He is specifically termed "an allowed fool," and "Feste the jester, a fool that the lady Olivia's father took much delight in." Malvolio likewise speaks of him as "a set fool." Of his dress it is impossible to speak correctly. If the fool's expression, "I will impeticoat thy gratility," be the original language, he must have been habited accordingly. Mr. Ritson has asserted that he has neither coxcomb nor bauble, deducing his argument from the want of any allusion to them. Yet such an omission may be a very fallacious guide in judging of the habit of this character on the stage. It must however be admitted that where this happens there can be no clue as to the precise manner in which the fool was dressed.

Antony and Cleopatra.

THE CLOWN.-He is a mere country fellow; but Shakspeare, in compliance with the usual expectations of the audience, has bestowed on him a due portion of wit and satire.