&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:Wise_Men_of_Gotham_1_-_WW_Denslow_-_Project_Gutenberg_etext_18546.jpg)
&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:Wise_Men_of_Gotham_2_-_WW_Denslow_-_Project_Gutenberg_etext_18546.jpg)
William Wallace Denslow's illustrations for Three Wise Men of Gotham, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose
The fool is a stock character in creative works (literature, film, etc.) and folklore. There are several distinct, although overlapping, categories of fool: simpleton fool, wise fool, and serendipitous fool.
The Motif-Index of Folk-Literature contains a group of motifs J1700-J2799. FOOLS (AND OTHER UNWISE PERSONS).[1]
- ^ Seth Thompson, Motif-index of folk-literature : a classification of narrative elements in folktales, ballads, myths, fables, medieval romances, exempla, fabliaux, jest-books, and local legends. J. THE WISE AND THE FOOLISH