The Court is not likely to keep a tame prophet in order to encourage him
to be wild. It is not likely to pay a man to say that wolves shall howl
in Downing-street and vultures build their nests in Buckingham Palace. So
vast has been the progress of humanity that these two things are quite
impossible. We cannot have a great poet praising kings. We cannot have a
great prophet denouncing kings. So I have to fall back on a third
suggestion.
The Field for a Fool
Instead of reviving the Court Poet, why not revive the Court Fool? He is
the only person who could do any good at this moment either to the Royal
or the judicial Courts. The present political situation is utterly
unsuitable for the purposes of a great poet. But it is particularly
suitable for the purposes of a great buffoon. The old jester was under
certain privileges: you could not resent the jokes of a fool, just as you
cannot resent the sermons of a curate. Now, what the present Government
of England wants is neither serious praise nor serious denunciation; what
it wants is satire. What it wants, in other words, is realism given with
gusto. When King Louis the Eleventh unexpectedly visited his enemy, the
Duke of Burgundy, with a small escort, the Duke's jester said he would
give the King his fool's cap, for he was the fool now.
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