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Fools

Status of Women

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Celia and Rosalind engage in an intellectual discourse on questions that might today be expressed as: “Is it better to be born talented or lucky?”, “Is it our genetic code or our environment that most shapes us?”, “Are women by nature or by misfortune disadvantaged in their status compared with men?” When Celia and Rosalind use the word natural, as in “Nature’s natural”
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And that she should love this fellow

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Cloten
And that she should love this fellow and
refuse me!
Second Lord, aside
If it be a sin to make a true election,
she is damned.

She shines not upon fools, lest
the reflection should hurt her.

First Lord
Sir, as I told you always,
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Source:
Act 1
Scene 2
Line 25

Source Type:

Spoken by:
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Themes:

Let us sit and mock the good huswife Fortune

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Celia
Let us sit and mock the good housewife Fortune
from her wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be
bestowed equally.Personification

Rosalind
I would we could do so, for her benefits are
mightily misplaced, and the bountiful blind woman
doth most mistake in her gifts to women.
Celia
‘Tis true,
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Source:
Act 1
Scene 2
Line 31

Source Type:

Spoken by:
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Themes:
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Figures of Speech:
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Connected Notes:
Status of Women, Blind Fortune

How now, wit, whither wander you?

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Celia
How now, wit, whither wander you?
Touchstone
Mistress, you must come away to your father.

The more pity that fools may not speak
wisely what wise men do foolishly

Celia
Were you made the messenger?
Touchstone
No, by mine honor, but I was bid to come
for you.
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Source:
Act 1
Scene 2
Line 56

Source Type:

Spoken by:
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Themes:
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Prithee tell him, so much the rent of his land comes to

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Fool, to Kent
Prithee tell him, so much the rent of his
land comes to. He will not believe a Fool.
King Lear
A bitter Fool!
Fool
Dost know the difference, my boy, between a
bitter fool and a sweet one?
King Lear
No, lad,
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Source:
Act 1
Scene 4
Line 138

Source Type:

Spoken by:
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Themes:

Nuncle, give me an egg

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Fool
Nuncle, give me
an egg, and I’ll give thee two crowns.
King Lear
What two crowns shall they be?
Fool
Why, after I have cut the egg i’ th’ middle and eat
up the meat, the two crowns of the egg. When thou
clovest thy crown  i’ th’ middle and gav’st away
both parts,
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Source:
Act 1
Scene 4
Line 159

Source Type:
,

Spoken by:
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Themes:

God bless thee, lady!

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Feste
—God bless thee, lady!
Olivia
Take the Fool away.
Feste
Do you not hear, fellows? Take away the Lady.
Olivia
Go to, you’re a dry Fool. I’ll no more of you.
Besides, you grow dishonest.
Feste
Two faults, madonna, that drink and good counsel
will amend.
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Source:
Act 1
Scene 5
Line 34

Source Type:

Spoken by:
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Themes:

Either thou art most ignorant by age

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Either thou art most ignorant by age,
Or thou wert born a fool.
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Source:
Act 2
Scene 1

Source Type:

Spoken by:

Themes:

A fool, a fool! I met a fool i’ th’ forest

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Jaques
A fool, a fool! I met a fool i’ th’ forest,
A motley fool. A miserable world!
As I do live by food, I met a fool,
Who laid him down, and bask’d him in the sun,
And rail’d on Lady Fortune in good terms,
In good set terms, and yet a motley fool.
“Good morrow,
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Source:
Act 2
Scene 7
Line 12

Source Type:

Spoken by:
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Themes:
,

Frateretto calls me and tells me Nero is an angler

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Edgar
Frateretto calls me and tells me Nero is an
angler in the lake of darkness. Pray, innocent, and
beware the foul fiend.
Fool
Prithee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a
gentleman or a yeoman.
Lear
A king, a king!
Fool
No, he’s a yeoman that has a gentleman to his
son,
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Source:
Act 3
Scene 6
Line 6

Source Type:
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Spoken by:
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Themes:
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Connected Notes:
Demons & Madness

I prithee, pretty youth, let me be  better acquainted with thee

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Jaques
I prithee, pretty youth, let me be  better
acquainted with thee.
Rosalind, as Ganymede
They say you are a melancholy fellow.
Jaques
I am so. I do love it better than laughing.

I had rather have a fool to make me merry
than experience to make me sad

Rosalind,
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Source:
Act 4
Scene 1
Line 1

Source Type:

Spoken by:
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Themes:
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