ABSTRACT
George Whetstone’s objection to seeing a clown as ‘a companion with a king’ flew in the face of all English and Scottish theatre practice of his time. The clown was a real-life entertainer of kings who also found his way into very many stage plays. Moros, the central figure, is disrobed near the end of the play to reveal a Fool’s motley under his garments. He has shown the validity of the transformation a little earlier when he fights himself – a traditional lazzo stolen from commedia dell’arte. The Croxton Play of the Sacrament has the doctor and his servant wisecracking with the audience about their ailments. The Pardoner and the Friar, in John Heywood’s play of the same name, fall to in an absurd slapstick combat. Yet clowning can be disruptive, and the absurdity of the Pardoner and the Friar, supposedly reverent fathers, fighting over trivialities, may convey the implicit truth embedded in foolery.
