Contact Admin. I just have some questions.. If Cordelia became King Lear's Fool what happened to the original Fool that Lear was used to coming into his presence when he called for him? And wasn't the Fool a boy? And wouldn't Lear have noticed that it was his daughter? Thanks for your questions Jessica. In the plays of Shakespeare's day two types of Fools were represented.
Indeed, they were present in real life too! There were what we might call simple people, people who were socially challenged, who needed the patronage of Kings, Dukes and the like to survive and who provided their patrons with entertainment, a reason to laugh, in return for their patronage!
Full text can be found via Google. Like many people who are socially challenged today, these Fools could say the most embarrassing things to their patrons and others, speaking the truth about them as they saw it.
Like Jack Oates, they got away with saying things to their masters that no one else would dare say. Then there were what Armin called Artificial Fools who would dress up in the Fool's motley, "goe and attyre him in one of his coates and These were "licensed" or "allowed" Fools. In the court of King James I, before whom King Lear was originally performed, there were knights who were in the habit of coming into the king's presence after supper dressed in motley to provide entertainment for the king, sometimes interacting with the King's natural Fools.
Some of these "licensed" or "allowed" Fools were known by name, as in the case of Feste in Twelfth Night , but sometimes there was an anonymity granted to these Fools which most of us would give to a clown today. And this seems to be the case in King Lear where the Fool doesn't have a name but is nevertheless a real person.
