>Fools are associated with a number of different
>historical and mythical personages; The fool and the
>kings, the fool and the princess, even the fool and
>death ( Erasmus called death the fool that made fools of us all) but also fools are linked in a triangle
>relationship with hero's and poets.
>   Part of the fools identity is that he is "not all
>here" He is a resident citizen of that grey area
>between this world and the next and while seeming to be in one he is yet still in the other, fools in old
>mystery plays might mention that the play must have
>taken place a "very long time ago" or he might rebut
>a criticism with the Shakespearian reply " and you go about speaking in blank verse" The fool follows rules outside those of the reality he inhibits or appears
to inhibit.
>    This is all not very different from the Hero or
>the poet. The very nature of the hero's definition is
>the going against conventional wisdom, (I mean does jumping ontop of a hangernade sound like a sane act?) Even when driven to nessecity the conduct of the hero requires that he takes risks for the benefit of
>others and his actions and abilities, his "great
>deeds" separate him from the normal world. The hero by being larger than life automatically puts him,
>like the fool, outside the rules of that life.
>     simalerly the poet has a natural association
>with folly, he is quickly enough associated with
>madness, whether permanent or the short term madness
>of intense love. His very art seems to be of another
>world and the hearing of it quickly brings us into
>otherworlds.
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