A03

Fools in Jacobean society

• employed in palaces of royalty or great houses of nobility

• Job was not to provide humour but to amuse courtiers with their critical comment on contemporary behaviours

• a “licensed” fool was permitted to say what he thought - often a privilege denied to even the rulers closest counsellors

How the Fool teaches Lear not only to be a better King but a better father

• Jacobean microcosm of the father and the king

• family and state

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