Christopher Moore - Fool: A Novel

This is a bawdy tale. Herein you will find gratuitous shagging, murder, spanking, maiming, treason, and heretofore unexplored heights of vulgarity and profanity, as well as non-traditional grammar, split infinitives, and the odd wank. If that sort of thing bothers you, then gentle reader pass by, for we endeavor only to entertain, not to offend. That said, if thats the sort of thing you think you might enjoy, then you have happened upon the perfect story!

Lear King of Britain

Goneril oldest daughter of Lear, Duchess of Albany. Wife of the Duke of Albany.

Regan second daughter of Lear, Duchess of Cornwall. Wife of the Duke of Cornwall.

Cordelia youngest daughter of Lear, Princess of Britain.

Cornwall Duke of Cornwall, Regans husband.

Albany Duke of Albany, Gonerils husband.

Gloucester Earl of Gloucester, a friend of King Lear.

Edgar eldest son of Gloucester, the heir to the earldom.

Edmund bastard son of Gloucester.

The Anchoress a holy woman.

Kent Earl of Kent, close friend of King Lear.

Pocket a fool.

Burgundy Duke of Burgundy, a suitor to Cordelia.

France Prince of France, a suitor to Cordelia.

Curan captain of Lears guard.

Drool an apprentice fool.

A Ghost theres always a bloody ghost.

The stage is a more or less mythical thirteenth-century Britain, with vestiges of British culture reaching back to pre-Roman times still loitering about. Britain encompasses what is now modern Great Britain, including England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, of which Lear is king. Generally, if not otherwise explained, conditions may be considered damp.

When we are born, we cry that we are come To this great stage of fools.

King Lear , Act IV, Scene 5

T osser! cried the raven.

Theres always a bloody raven.

Foolish teachin him to talk, if you ask me, said the sentry.

Im duty-bound foolish, yeoman, said I. I am, you know? A fool. Fool to the court of Lear of Britain. And you are a tosser, I said.

Piss off! said the raven.

The yeoman took a swipe at the bird with his spear and the great black bird swooped off the wall and went cawing out over the Thames. A ferryman looked up from his boat, saw us on the tower, and waved. I jumped onto the wall and bowedat your fucking service, thank you. The yeoman grumbled and spat after the raven.

There have always been ravens at the White Tower. A thousand years ago, before George II, idiot king of Merica, destroyed the world, there were ravens here. The legend says that as long as there are ravens at the Tower, England will stand strong. Still, it may have been a mistake to teach one to talk.

The Earl of Gloucester approaches! cried a sentry on the west wall. With his son Edgar and the bastard Edmund!

The yeoman by me grinned. Gloucester, eh? Be sure you do that bit where you play a goat and Drool plays the earl mistaking you for his wife.

That would be unkind, said I. The earl is newly widowed.

You did it the last time he was here and she was still warm in the grave.

Well, yes. A service thattrying to shock the poor wretch out of his grief, wasnt it?

Good show, too. The way you was bleatin I thought ol Drool was givin it to you right proper up the bung.

I made a note to shove the guard off the wall when opportunity presented.

Heard he was going to have you assassinated, but he couldnt make a case to the king.

Gloucesters a noble, he doesnt need a case for murder, just a whim and a blade.

Not bloody likely, the yeoman said, everyone knows the kings got a wing oer you.

That was true. I enjoy a certain license.

Have you seen Drool? With Gloucester here, therell be a command performance. My apprentice, Droola beef-witted bloke the size of a draught horse.

He was in the kitchen before the watch, said the yeoman.

The kitchen buzzedthe staff preparing for a feast.

Have you seen Drool? I asked Taster, who sat at the table star laid out with cold pork, the kings dinner. He was a thin, sickly lad, chosen, no doubt, for his weakness of constitution, and a predisposition toward dropping dead at the slightest provocation. I liked to tell him my troubles, sure that they would not travel far.

Does this look poisoned to you?

Its pork, lad. Lovely. Eat up. Half the men in England would give a testicle to feast thus, and it only mid-day. Im tempted myself. I tossed my headgave him a grin and a bit of a jingle on the ol hat bells to cheer him. I pantomimed stealing a bit of his pork. After you, of course.

A knife thumped into the table by my hand.

Back, Fool, said Bubble, the head cook. Thats the kings lunch and Ill have your balls before Ill let you at it.

My balls are yours for the asking, milady, said I. Would you have them on a trencher, or shall I serve them in a bowl of cream, like peaches?

Bubble harrumphed, yanked her knife from the table and went back to gutting a trout at the butcher block, her great bottom rolling like thunderclouds under her skirt as she moved.

Youre a wicked little man, Pocket, said Squeak, waves of freckles riding oer her shy smile. She was second to the cook, a sturdy, ginger-haired girl with a high giggle and a generous spirit in the dark. Taster and I often passed pleasant afternoons at the table watching her wring the necks of chickens.

Pocket is my name, by the way. Given to me by the abbess who found me on the nunnery doorstep when I was a tiny babe. True, I am not a large fellow. Some might even say I am diminutive, but I am quick as a cat and nature has compensated me with other gifts. But wicked?

I think Drool was headed to the princesss chambers, Squeak said.

Aye, said Taster, glumly. The lady sent for a cure for melancholy.

And the git went? Jest on his own? The boy wasnt ready. What if he blundered, tripped, fell on the princess like a millstone on a butterfly? Are you sure?

Bubble dropped a gutless trout into a bushel of slippery cofishes. Chanting, Off to do ma duty, he was. We told him youd be looking for him when we heard Princess Goneril and the Duke of Albany was coming.

Albanys coming?

Aint he sworn to string your entrails from the chandelier? asked Taster.

No, corrected Squeak. That was Duke of Cornwall. Albany was going to have his head on a pike, I believe. Pike, wasnt it, Bubble?

Aye, have his head on a pike. Funny thing, thinkin about it, youd look like a bigger version of your puppet-stick there.

Jones, said Taster, pointing to my jesters scepter, Jones, who is, indeed, a smaller version of my own handsome countenance, fixed atop a sturdy handle of polished hickory. Jones speaks for me when even my tongue needs to exceed safe license with knights and nobles, his head pre-piked for the wrath of the dull and humorless. My finest art is oft lost in the eye of the subject.

Yes, that would be right hilarious, Bubbleironic imagerylike the lovely Squeak turning you on a spit over a fire, an apple up both your ends for coloralthough I daresay the whole castle might conflagrate in the resulting grease fire, but until then wed laugh and laugh.

I dodged a well-flung trout then, and paid Bubble a grin for not throwing her knife instead. Fine woman, she, despite being large and quick to anger. Well, Ive a great drooling dolt to find if we are to prepare an entertainment for the evening.