2
retained their “fools”, who wore motley, with caps
and. bells, and who were expected to be always
ready with sharp witticisms, at a moment’s notice,
in consideration of the crumbs that fell from the
royal table... =
Our king, as a matter of, course, retained his
“fool”. The fact is, he required something in
the way of folly—if only to counterbalance the
heavy wisdom of the seven wise men who were his
ministers—not to. mention himself.
His fool, or professional jester, was not oply a
fool, however. His value was trebled in the eyes
of the king, by the fact of his being also a dwarf
and a cripple. Dwarfs were as common at court,
in those days, as fools; and many monarchs would
have found it difficult to get through their days
(days are rather longer at court than elsewhere)
without both a jester to laugh with, and a dwarf
to laugh at.
But, as I have dlready observed, your jesters, in
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, are fat, round,
and unwieldy—so that it was no small source of
self-gratulation with our king that, in Hop-Frog
(this was the fool’s name), he possessed a triplicate
treasure in one person. ~~.
I believe the name “Hop-Frog” was not that
given to the dwarf by his sponsers at baptism, but
it was conferred upon him, by general consent of
the seven ministers, on account of his inability to
walk as other men do. .
In fact, Hop-Frog could only get along by a sort
of interjectional gait—something between a leap
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