575 A History of the Fool (with Peter Andersson) | My Last Book with Ed Simon

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

History, Books, Arts

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2023

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Shakespeare helped to make the Fool a common literary character. But what about the real-life fools who served in actual courts? Who were they and what kind of lives did they lead? In this episode, Jacke talks to author Peter K. Andersson about his book Fool: In Search of Henry VIII's Closest Man, which tells the story of Will Somer, an unusual man with a very strange job. PLUS Milton expert Ed Simon (Heaven, Hell, and Paradise Lost) selects his choice for the last book he will ever read. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglamorate Network and LIT Hub Radio.
0:09.0	Make match days easy with Google Pay. Journey across town.
0:13.0	Tap in and save time.
0:15.0	Pub-Gone Cashless. Just tap and save stress.
0:18.0	Fast, safe, simple.
0:20.0	Match days made easy with Google Pay.
0:22.0	Add a card to Google wallet.
0:24.0	Hello he's a familiar figure in Shakespeare the one who takes some getting used to
0:30.0	the fool I can still remember when I first started reading Shakespeare and I thought,
0:34.5	what the heck is this fool doing here?
0:36.5	Why does the king keep him around?
0:39.5	It might be a little easier to see why Shakespeare kept him around. He plays a role entertaining
0:44.4	the audience, lightning the mood, but also delivering truths. He can advance the plot, expose
0:51.6	hypocrisy, change the mood, be the audience's stand-in.
0:57.0	Polish critic Jan Kott once wrote, quote,
1:00.0	The fool does not follow any ideology. He rejects all appearances of law, justice, moral
1:07.0	order. He sees brute force, cruelty, and lust. He has no illusions and does not seek consolation in the existence of natural or supernatural order, which provides
1:19.4	for the punishment of evil and the reward of good.
1:23.0	Lear, insisting on his fictitious majesty, seems ridiculous to him.
1:28.0	All the more ridiculous because he does not see how ridiculous he is, but the fool does not desert his ridiculous degraded
1:36.7	king and accompanies him on his way to madness.
1:40.9	The fool knows that the only true madness is to recognize this world as rational."
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jacke Wilson, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Jacke Wilson and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.