Introduction: Fools, from Popular Culture to Disability Studies -- Section 1. Law -- The Legal Discourse of 'Idiocy' on the Stage and Page -- 'A fool and his money are soon parted': the Fool and Property -- 'An you knew my properties somebody would ha' me': the Fool as a Ward -- Section 2. Medicine and Physiognomy -- Nature, Wits and Skulls: the Fool's Head -- Intellectual, Sensory and Physical Disability: the Fool's Body and Face -- Rationalising Fools' Disability: Causes and Risk Factors -- Epilogue: Intellectual Disability, Embodiment and Humour in Early Modern Literature.
Summary:
"This book discusses how early modern legal and medical definitions of intellectual disability influenced the characterisation of fool characters in early modern English literature"-- Provided by publisher.
Series:
Routledge studies in Renaissance literature and culture
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.