It would be a crime to believe thus.

My God, what a wicked and wretched world it must be in which we could not trust even our most faithful and dearest friends!" "The world is indeed wicked and wretched, and one must despair of it, or consider it a merry jest, with which the devil tickles our noses.

For me, it is such a jest, and therefore, queen, I have become the king's fool, which at least gives me the right of spurting out upon the crawling brood all the venom of the contempt I feel for mankind, and of speaking the truth to those who have only lies, by dripping honey, ever on their lips.

The sages and poets are the real fools of our day, and since I did not feel a vocation to be a king, or a priest, a hangman, or a lamb for sacrifice, I became a fool." "Yes, a fool, that is to say, an epigrammatist, whose biting tongue makes the whole court tremble." "Since I cannot, like my royal master, have these criminals executed, I give them a few sword-cuts with my tongue.

Ah, I tell you, you will much need this ally.