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Day had scarcely dawned when the fully dressed guests came into the hall to show themselves and have a look at the weather. The more original young bucks were dressed in coats with large flapping sleeves, vests with broad flat buttons, and velvet caps with crane's feathers; the elegants, on the other hand, affected tightly fitting dolmans and spiral hats; only the buffoon, Count Gregory, was got up,
Or lastly, in illustration of my second point, let us take this note on the remark of the knight that "since my young lady's going into France the fool hath much pined away ": "The fool is no comic buffoon to make the groundlings laugh no forced condescension of Shakspeare's genius to the taste of his audience.
Such speeches as these, continually repeated, caused Poinsinet to be fully convinced of his ugliness; he used to go about in companies, and take every opportunity of inveighing against himself; he made verses and epigrams against himself; he talked about "that dwarf, Poinsinet;" "that buffoon, Poinsinet;" "that conceited, hump-backed Poinsinet;" and he would spend hours before the glass, abusing his own face as he saw it reflected there, and vowing that he grew handsomer at every fresh epithet that he uttered.
"'I wasn't arguing, sais he, quite short, 'I was only asking questions, and how can you ever learn if you don't inquire? "Well, when he got to the barrack, he got a book wrote by a Frenchman, called Buffoon." "A capital name," sais I, "for a Frenchman," but he didn't take, for there is no more fun in an Englishman than a dough pudding, and went on without stopping.
'And Bagshot for a butt, said the Duke. 'And Backbite for a buffoon, said Mr. Annesley. 'And for the rest, said the young Duke, 'the rest of the crew, I vote, shall be women. The Dalmaines will just do. 'And the little Trevors, said Lord Darrell. 'And Long Harrington, said Lord Squib. 'She is my beauty. 'And the young Ducie, said Annesley. 'And Mrs. Dallington of course, and Caroline St.
Beside the man of war and the statesman, it remained to draw the theologian, the pedant, the wretched poet, the seer of visions, the buffoon, the father, the husband, the human Proteus in a word, the twofold Cromwell, homo et vir. There is one period of his life, especially, in which this strange personality exhibits itself in all its forms.
There was Percy Pound, a fat, freckled boy with chubby cheeks, who took half a dozen boys' story-papers and was always being kept in for reading detective stories behind his desk. There was Tip Smith, destined by his freckles and red hair to be the buffoon in all our games, though he walked like a timid little old man and had a funny, cracked laugh.
By a curious regulation, the jester is always a Brahman, and, therefore, of a caste superior to the king himself; yet his business is to excite mirth by being ridiculous in person, age, and attire. He is represented as grey-haired, hump-backed, lame and hideously ugly. In fact, he is a species of buffoon, who is allowed full liberty of speech, being himself a universal butt.
Every line that could possibly be interpreted into a secret inclination for war, was carefully avoided; while, on the other hand, he studied those conceits that might be construed into amity. In short, he entirely sacrificed every appearance of the warrior to the masquerade of a buffoon.
Nay, nay, Sancho friend, keep clear, oh, keep clear of these stumbling-blocks; for he who falls into the way of being a chatterbox and droll, drops into a wretched buffoon the first time he trips; bridle thy tongue, consider and weigh thy words before they escape thy mouth, and bear in mind we are now in quarters whence, by God's help, and the strength of my arm, we shall come forth mightily advanced in fame and fortune."
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