The Greater Trumps: (01) The Fool
We see him as he is, a young man of indeterminate youth, on a journey or perhaps setting out on one - which might be about to end soon. He is dressed in motley; whether he began that way or became that way along the journey is impossible to tell. In fact, there is much that cannot be determined in this Trump.
Looking at his path, we see a cliff-edge. And - horrors! - the Fool is about to step over it. Then again, perhaps we have mistaken his action and he is withdrawing his foot from the edge. Again, we feel a frisson of unease as we wonder which is true.
And that, my friends, is the nature of the Fool. He is obviously Folly, but on closer inspection, perhaps not. Perhaps he is being prudent, or foolhardy, or tentative, or suicidal. We do not know, we cannot tell: the Fool is both Folly and Unknowledge, and only the way this Trump falls (upright or reversed) can tell us anything at all.
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I always think of myself as partly the Fool. I used to answer, "The Fool," when asked, "What do you play?" (in any context - games, music etc), And of course, my friends will recognize one of my favourite quotes from T S Eliot's The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock:
No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool.
It's very like me, except that I am perhaps not such an 'easy tool' as some have found to their disappointment and regret.
Looking at his path, we see a cliff-edge. And - horrors! - the Fool is about to step over it. Then again, perhaps we have mistaken his action and he is withdrawing his foot from the edge. Again, we feel a frisson of unease as we wonder which is true.
And that, my friends, is the nature of the Fool. He is obviously Folly, but on closer inspection, perhaps not. Perhaps he is being prudent, or foolhardy, or tentative, or suicidal. We do not know, we cannot tell: the Fool is both Folly and Unknowledge, and only the way this Trump falls (upright or reversed) can tell us anything at all.
=====
I always think of myself as partly the Fool. I used to answer, "The Fool," when asked, "What do you play?" (in any context - games, music etc), And of course, my friends will recognize one of my favourite quotes from T S Eliot's The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock:
No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool.
It's very like me, except that I am perhaps not such an 'easy tool' as some have found to their disappointment and regret.
Labels: Greater Trumps, Symbolism
etched with acid at 6:08:00 am
2 Comments:
One of the gems I have found in Twelfth Night (and hence why I love it so): "cucullus non facit monachum; that's as much to say as I wear not motley in my brain."
Feste the Fool said it. :) And hence that is why I love the fool too. For the fool, at least in Shakespeare, was never really the fool, but the enlightener and would light up other people's folly and foolery.
*grin* yes, God has chosen the foolish things of this world to shame the wise, hasn't He?
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