[From This World to the Next by Henry Fielding]@TWC D-Link bookFrom This World to the Next CHAPTER XVIII 6/6
The Simple, who would still speak to me, cried out, 'So, fool, what's the matter now ?' 'Sir,' answered I, 'fools are like to be so common a commodity at court, that I am weary of my coat.' 'How dost thou mean ?' answered the Simple; 'what can make them commoner now than usual ?'--'O, sir,' said I, 'there are ladies here make your majesty a fool every day of their lives.' The Simple took no notice of my jest, and several present said my bones ought to be broke for my impudence; but it pleased the queen, who, knowing Adelaide, whom she hated, to be the cause of my disgrace, obtained me of the king, and took me into her service; so that I was henceforth called the queen's fool, and in her court received the same honor, and had as much wit, as I had formerly had in the king's.
But as the queen had really no power unless over her own domestics, I was not treated in general with that complacence, nor did I receive those bribes and presents, which had once fallen to my share. "Nor did this confined respect continue long: for the queen, who had in fact no taste for humor, soon grew sick of my foolery, and, forgetting the cause for which she had taken me, neglected me so much, that her court grew intolerable to my temper, and I broke my heart and died. "Minos laughed heartily at several things in my story, and then, telling me no one played the fool in Elysium, bid me go back again.".
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