ese Times," 1626, quarto.

"Tell country players, that old paltry jests
Pronounced in a painted motley coate,
Filles all the world so full of cuckoo nests,
That nightingales can scarcely sing a note.
Oh! bid them turn their minds to better meanings;
Fields are ill sowne that give no better gleanings."

Sir Philip Sidney reprobates the custom of introducing fools on the
stage; and declares that the plays of his time were neither right
tragedies nor right comedies, for the authors mingled kings and Clowns,
"not," says he, "because the matter so carrieth it, but thrust in the
Clowne by head and shoulders to play a part in majestical matters, with
neither decencie nor discretion; so as neither the admiration and
commisseration, nor the right sportfulnesse, is by their mongrell
tragie-comedie obtained." Rankin, a puritan, contemporary with
Shakespeare, wrote a most bitter attack on plays and players, whom he
calls monsters; "And whie monsters?" says he, "because under colour of
humanitie they present nothing but prodigious vanitie; these are wels
without water, dead branches fit for fuell, cockle amongst corne,
unwholesome weedes amongst sweete hearbes; and, finallie, feends that
are crept into the worlde by stealth, and hold possession by subtill
invasion." In another place, he says, "some transformed themselves to
rogues, others to ruffians, some others to Clownes, a fourth to fools;
the rogues were ready, the ruffians were rude, theyr Clownes cladde as
well with country condition, as in ruffe russet; theyr fooles as fond as
might be."

To give a clear view of our subject, something of the different sorts of
fools may be thus classed:

1.--The _general domestic fool_, termed often, but _improperly_, a
_Clown_; described by Puttenham as "a buffoune, or counterfett foole."

2.--The _Clown_, who was a mere country booby, or a witty rustic.

3.--The _female fool_, who was generally an idiot.

4.--The _city or corporation fool_, an assistant in public
entertainments.

5.--The _tavern fool_, retained to amuse the customers.

6.--The _fool of the ancient Mysteries and Moralities_, otherwise the
_Vice_.

7.--The _fool in the old dumb shows_, often alluded to by Shakespeare.

8.--The _fool in the Whitsun ales and morris dance_.

9.--The _mountebank's fool, or merry Andrew_.

There may be others in our ancient dramas, of an irregular kind, not
reducible to any of these classes; bu