Die digitale Landesbibliothek Oberösterreich

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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