"Anthony Weldon Sir Anthony Weldon (1583–1648) was an English 17th century courtier and politician. He is also the purported author of ""The Court and Character of King James I"", although this attribution has been challenged. The story of Weldon's dismissal from King James' court for his negative assessment of the Scots in ""A Description of Scotland"", is usually taken as the justification for the criticism of James in ""The Court and Character of King James I"", which contains the famous comment that James was ""the wisest fool in Christendom"". However, it is unclear whether Weldon was the author of either"
"fusion of Italian humanistic thought and northern piety which has been called Christian Humanism."" At the same time, Shakespeare greatly helped popularize the wise fool in the English theater through incorporating the trope in a variety of characters throughout many of his plays. While Shakespeare's early plays largely portray the wise fool in comic terms as a buffoon, the later plays characterize the fool in a much more melancholic and contemplative light. For example, in ""King Lear"", the Fool becomes the only one capable of speaking truth to the King and often takes on the role of revealing life's tragic"
"famously demonstrated through the fool in Shakespeare's ""King Lear,"" who works in the royal court and remains the only character who Lear does not severely punish for speaking his mind about the king and his precarious situations. This ability to be reckless, honest, and free with language has greatly contributed to the wise fool's popularity in the literary imagination. ""To call a man a fool is not necessarily an insult, for the authentic life has frequently been pictured under the metaphor of the fool. In figures such as Socrates, Christ, and the Idiot of Dostoyevsky we see that foolishness and"
"Church and Roman Catholic Church on May 1 and may also be on May 10. Saint Isidora Saint Isidora or Isidore (Saint Isidora the Simple, Saint Isidora of Tabenna, Saint Isidora of Egypt, Isidora the Fool of Egypt, Saint Isidora Fool for Christ, Blessed Isidora the Fool of Tabenna in Egypt) was a Christian nun and saint of the 4th century AD. She is considered among the earliest fools for Christ. While very little is known of Isidora’s life, she is remembered for her exemplification of the writing of St. Paul that “Whosoever of you believes that he is wise"
"the Italian and English Renaissances. In Italian scholar Erasmus' ""Moriae encomium,"" written in 1509 and first published in 1511, the author portrays Stultitia, the goddess of folly, and a wise fool herself, who asks what it means to be a fool and puts forth a brazen argument praising folly and claiming that all people are fools of one kind or another. According to scholar Walter Kaiser, Stultitia is ""the foolish creation of the most learned man of his time, she is the literal embodiment of the word ""oxymoron,"" and in her idiotic wisdom she represents the finest flowering of that"
"Saint Isidora Saint Isidora or Isidore (Saint Isidora the Simple, Saint Isidora of Tabenna, Saint Isidora of Egypt, Isidora the Fool of Egypt, Saint Isidora Fool for Christ, Blessed Isidora the Fool of Tabenna in Egypt) was a Christian nun and saint of the 4th century AD. She is considered among the earliest fools for Christ. While very little is known of Isidora’s life, she is remembered for her exemplification of the writing of St. Paul that “Whosoever of you believes that he is wise by the measure of this world, may he become a fool, so as to become"
"seen as less intelligent. In William Shakespeare's play ""Hamlet"", one of Polonius's many sententious maxims reads Shakespeare's audiences were not necessarily inclined to read Polonius as someone who is perfectly wise; his sentences, like that of much early modern drama, can easily be seen as part of a comic trope. George Orwell mocked logorrhea in ""Politics and the English Language"" (1946) by taking verse (9:11) from the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible ""I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise,"
"that I know nothing,"" a statement that has come to frame him in the oxymoron of the ignorant knower. In Plato's Apology, this self admission of ignorance ultimately leads the oracle at Delphi to claim there is no man with greater wisdom than Socrates. The wise fool manifested most commonly throughout the Middle Ages as a religious figure in stories and poetry. During the Islamic Golden Age (approx. 750 - 1280 CE), an entire literary genre formed around reports about the ""intelligent insane."" One book in particular, ""Kitab Ugala al-majanin"", by an-Naysaburi, a muslim author from the Abbasid Period, recounts"
"Polydore Vergil Polidoro Virgili, commonly Latinised as Polydorus Vergilius, or anglicised as Polydore Vergil (or Virgil), and often known as Polydore Vergil of Urbino (""c."" 1470 – 18 April 1555) was an Italian humanist scholar, historian, priest and diplomat, who spent most of his life in England. He is particularly remembered for his works the ""Proverbiorum libellus"" (1498), a collection of Latin proverbs; ""De inventoribus rerum"" (1499), a history of discoveries and origins; and the ""Anglica Historia"" (drafted by 1513; printed 1534), an influential history of England. He has been dubbed the ""Father of English History"". Vergil is sometimes referred"
"the most tolerated non-Catholic faith in Europe. However, the latter was in part a reaction to the growing movement that became the Reformation. As early as 1380, John Wycliffe in England denied transubstantiation and began his translation of the Bible into English. He was condemned in a Papal Bull in 1410, and all his books were burned. In 1414, Jan Hus, a Bohemian preacher of reformation, was given a safe conduct by the Holy Roman Emperor to attend the Council of Constance. Not entirely trusting in his safety, he made his will before he left. His forebodings proved accurate, and"
"Gildas Gildas (Breton: ""Gweltaz""; c. 500 – c. 570) — also known as Gildas the Wise or Gildas Sapiens — was a 6th-century British monk best known for his scathing religious polemic ""De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae"", which recounts the history of the Britons before and during the coming of the Saxons. He is one of the best-documented figures of the Christian church in the British Isles during the sub-Roman period, and was renowned for his Biblical knowledge and literary style. In his later life, he emigrated to Brittany where he founded a monastery known as St. Gildas de Rhuys."
"or elite knowledge. While examples of the paradox can be found in a wide range of early world literature, from Greco-Roman works to the oral traditions of folk culture, the paradox received unprecedented attention from authors and artists during the Renaissance. More than Shakespeare for his range of clownish wise men or Cervantes for his lunatic genius Don Quijote, sixteenth century scholar Erasmus is often credited for creating the definitive wise fool and most famous paradox in western literature through his portrayal of Stultitia, the goddess of folly. Influential to all later fools, she shows the foolish ways of the"
"Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) is known as the Father of English literature and is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages. He was the first to be buried in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. Chaucer achieved fame during his lifetime as an author, philosopher, and astronomer, composing a scientific treatise on the astrolabe for his 10 year-old son Lewis. He also maintained an active career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, and diplomat. Among his many works are ""The Book of the Duchess"", ""The House of Fame"", ""The Legend of"
"Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) is known as the Father of English literature and is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages. He was the first to be buried in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. Chaucer achieved fame during his lifetime as an author, philosopher, and astronomer, composing a scientific treatise on the astrolabe for his 10 year-old son Lewis. He also maintained an active career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, and diplomat. Among his many works are ""The Book of the Duchess"", ""The House of Fame"", ""The Legend of"
"Stupid! Stupid! was a British television comedy sketch show aimed at children of primary and secondary school age, which was first broadcast on CBBC and subsequently BBC One. King Stupid (played in Series 1 by Marcus Brigstocke, and Series 2 by Phil Cornwell) is an immortal who is the instigator of all stupidity. King Stupid has files on every human and can make them behave stupidly using an advanced computer system. The King resides inside his castle in the Etherworld, a pan-dimensional realm with upside-down wall sockets, which is home to many Deed Monarchs, each of which rule over different"
"the stock character roles of the Jester and the Vulnerable Lover. He performed routines like juggling and egg-smashing and blew soap bubbles. According to his website, he had custard-pied ten bishops, and ""most were grateful – or at least happy to play"". Bain traced the origins of his clown ministry to the ""holy fools"" and ""feasts of fools"" of the Middle Ages, and quoted Saint Paul saying ""We are fools for Christ."" (1 Corinthians 4:10) He was the only Church of England priest to work full-time as a clown. He once said, “That is the only sort of clowning I"
"""Anglica Historia"""". Polydore Vergil Polidoro Virgili, commonly Latinised as Polydorus Vergilius, or anglicised as Polydore Vergil (or Virgil), and often known as Polydore Vergil of Urbino (""c."" 1470 – 18 April 1555) was an Italian humanist scholar, historian, priest and diplomat, who spent most of his life in England. He is particularly remembered for his works the ""Proverbiorum libellus"" (1498), a collection of Latin proverbs; ""De inventoribus rerum"" (1499), a history of discoveries and origins; and the ""Anglica Historia"" (drafted by 1513; printed 1534), an influential history of England. He has been dubbed the ""Father of English History"". Vergil is"
"Munich in a 10th-century uncial script. The work was also translated into Georgian and Slavonic. Andrew of Constantinople Andrew of Constantinople (Andrew the Fool-for-Christ or Andrew, the Fool, ; died in 936) is considered a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church, and is revered as a Fool for Christ. Andrew, a Slav by birth, was a slave of Theognostus, who was serving as a bodyguard in Constantinople. Later, he decided to become a Fool for Christ, living out his goal with humility and patience. According to certain sources, Andrew had a vision of Most Holy Theotokos in the Blachernae church"
"angry herdsman who, seeing the ""charity, simplicity, and humility"" (Hudleston, 1953) in Brother Juniper's heart, forgave him and delivered the rest of the pig to the brothers. The Holy Fool or ""yuródivyy"" (юродивый) is the Russian version of foolishness for Christ, a peculiar form of Eastern Orthodox asceticism. The yurodivy is a Holy Fool, one who acts intentionally foolish in the eyes of men. The term implies behaviour ""which is caused neither by mistake nor by feeble-mindedness, but is deliberate, irritating, even provocative."" In his book ""Holy Fools in Byzantium and Beyond"", Ivanov described ""holy fool"" as a term for"
"Fool (stock character) There are several distinct, although overlapping categories of fool as a stock character in creative works (literature, film, etc.) and folklore: simpleton fool, clever fool, and serendipitous fool. A silly, stupid, simpleton, luckless fool is a butt of numerous jokes and tales all over the world. Sometimes the foolishness is ascribed to a whole place, as exemplified by the Wise Men of Gotham. The localizing of fools is common to most countries, and there are many other reputed imbecile centres in England besides Gotham. Thus there are the people of Coggeshall, Essex, the ""carles"" of Austwick, Yorkshire,"
"of our dominions than such a worthy councillor."" G. K. Chesterton, a Roman Catholic convert from the Church of England, predicted More ""may come to be counted the greatest Englishman, or at least the greatest historical character in English history."" Hugh Trevor-Roper called More ""the first great Englishman whom we feel that we know, the most saintly of humanists, the most human of saints, the universal man of our cool northern renaissance."" Jonathan Swift, an Anglican, wrote that More was ""a person of the greatest virtue this kingdom ever produced"". Some consider Samuel Johnson that quote's author, although neither his"
"stutterer. Partly due to a perceived lack of intelligence because of his stutter, the man who became the Roman Emperor Claudius was initially shunned from the public eye and excluded from public office. His infirmity is also thought to have saved him from the fate of many other Roman nobles during the purges of Tiberius and Caligula. Isaac Newton, the English scientist who developed the law of gravity, also had a stutter. Other famous Englishmen who stammered were King George VI and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who led the UK through World War II. Although George VI went through years"
"Andrew of Constantinople Andrew of Constantinople (Andrew the Fool-for-Christ or Andrew, the Fool, ; died in 936) is considered a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church, and is revered as a Fool for Christ. Andrew, a Slav by birth, was a slave of Theognostus, who was serving as a bodyguard in Constantinople. Later, he decided to become a Fool for Christ, living out his goal with humility and patience. According to certain sources, Andrew had a vision of Most Holy Theotokos in the Blachernae church of Constantinople, while the city was surrounded by enemy troops (by some sources, Muslim Arabs)."
"story told by the Venerable Bede. One day Gregory saw some fair-haired children for sale in the slave market in Rome. ""What nation are they?"" he asked. ""They're Angles (English),"" he was told. ""Non Angli sed angeli (not Angles but angels)!"" punned Gregory. He wished to evangelise the English; but when he was made Pope instead he sent 40 monks under St. Augustine of Canterbury to England in 597, and the Church of England was the result. ""St. John Chrysostom,"" Patriarch of Constantinople 398 - 407, was a celebrated preacher (""chrysostom"" means ""golden-tongued"") and reformer who was deliberately killed by"
"his ""anti-autobiography"" while calling himself a fool. Hyers says ""Jesus freely used humor, irony and satire"" and offers the examples of ""the blind leading the blind; straining out a gnat, then swallowing a camel; meticulously cleaning the outside of a cup while leaving the inside filthy; maintaining whitewashed tombs that are outwardly beautiful but inwardly full of dead men's bones; loudly honoring past prophets while plotting to kill present ones who preach the same message."" These are examples of what Whedbee describes as ""Jesus as the cynic sage."" Comedian Eric Idle opines that Jesus is ""not particularly funny, what he's"
"Christopher Smart Christopher Smart (11 April 1722 – 21 May 1771), was an English poet. He was a major contributor to two popular magazines and a friend to influential cultural icons like Samuel Johnson and Henry Fielding. Smart, a high church Anglican, was widely known throughout London. Smart was infamous as the pseudonymous midwife ""Mrs. Mary Midnight"" and widespread accounts of his father-in-law, John Newbery, locking him away in a mental asylum for many years over Smart's supposed religious ""mania"". Even after Smart's eventual release, a negative reputation continued to pursue him as he was known for incurring more debt"
"of the poem, Pope crowned Cibber King of Dunces. From being merely one symptom of the artistic decay of Britain, he was transformed into the demigod of stupidity, the true son of the goddess Dulness. Apart from the personal quarrel, Pope had reasons of literary appropriateness for letting Cibber take the place of his first choice of King, Lewis Theobald. Theobald, who had embarrassed Pope by contrasting Pope's impressionistic Shakespeare edition (1725) with Theobald's own scholarly edition (1726), also wrote Whig propaganda for hire, as well as dramatic productions which were to Pope abominations for their mixing of tragedy and"
"O'Connor, Walker Percy, Rainer Maria Rilke, J.D. Salinger and John Updike. What George Henry Price wrote in his 1963 book ""The Narrow Pass"" regarding the ""who"" and the ""what"" of Kierkegaard still seems to hold true today: ""Kierkegaard was the sanest man of his generation...Kierkegaard was a schizophrenic...Kierkegaard was the greatest Dane...the difficult Dane...the gloomy Dane...Kierkegaard was the greatest Christian of the century...Kierkegaard's aim was the destruction of the historic Christian faith...He did not attack philosophy as such...He negated reason...He was a voluntarist...Kierkegaard was the Knight of Faith...Kierkegaard never found faith...Kierkegaard possessed the truth...Kierkegaard was one of the damned."" Kierkegaard"
"Nigel de Longchamps Nigel de Longchamps, also known as Nigel Witeker, (fl. c. 1190, died c. 1200), was an English satirist and poet of the late twelfth century, writing in Latin. He is known to have been a monk of Christ Church, Canterbury, from 1186 to 1193, and perhaps earlier (he claims to have met Thomas Becket, killed in 1170). He is the author of the ""Speculum stultorum"" (A Mirror of Fools), a satire in Latin elegiac verse on the clergy and society in general. The hero is Burnellus, or Brunellus, a foolish ass, who goes in search of a"
"Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet and cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. Swift is remembered for works such as ""A Tale of a Tub"" (1704), ""An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity"" (1712), ""Gulliver's Travels"" (1726), and ""A Modest Proposal"" (1729). He is regarded by the ""Encyclopædia Britannica"" as the foremost prose satirist in the English language, and is less well known for his poetry. He originally published all of his works under pseudonyms – such as"
"Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (; 18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic, political activist, and Nobel laureate. At various points in his life, Russell considered himself a liberal, a socialist and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had ""never been any of these things, in any profound sense."" Russell was born in Monmouthshire into one of the most prominent aristocratic families in the United Kingdom. In the early 20th century, Russell led the British ""revolt against idealism"". He is considered one of the"
"Stupidity Stupidity is a lack of intelligence, understanding, reason, wit, or common sense. Stupidity may be innate, assumed or reactive – a defence against grief or trauma. The root word ""stupid"", which can serve as an adjective or noun, comes from the Latin verb ""stupere"", for being numb or astonished, and is related to ""stupor"". In Roman culture, the ""stupidus"" was the professional fall guy in the theatrical mimes. According to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary, the words ""stupid"" and ""stupidity"" entered the English language in 1541. Since then, stupidity has taken place along with ""fool,"" ""idiot,"" ""dumb,"" ""moron,"" and related"
"Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century. A prolific writer, he published widely over the course of his life. Born to a wealthy family in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, Crowley rejected his parent's fundamentalist Christian Plymouth Brethren faith to pursue an interest in Western esotericism. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, where he"