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Armin was a major intellectual influence on Shakespeare's fools. He was attuned to the intellectual tradition of the Renaissance fool yet intellectual enough to understand the power of the medieval tradition. Armin's fool is a stage presence rather than a solo artist.
Ken Kesey, in an interview, summarizes Armin's ideas about the two kinds of fool: "That fool of Shakespeare's, the actor Robert Armin [a mistake for Will Kempe who is widely believed to have played Falstaff], became so popular that finally Shakespeare wrote him out of Henry IV.
Fool is an example of a modern adaptation that entertains, enlightens, and interprets Shakespeare to relate to an audience of non-specialists. Moore utilizes the fool character through the medium of the novel, focusing on Pocket’s action and importance as a dualistic comic character of wisdom and humor.
- Tina Kramer
- 2019
Apr 1, 2023 · Armin appeared in several Shakespearean plays after 1599. Unlike Kempe, Armin’s characters are essential to the plot of the play, and his jokes support the themes and ideas of the plays themselves. As Feste in Twelfth Night , Armin makes jokes that make fun of the overly-serious Orsino and Countess Olivia:
The fool is a very important character in a Shakespeare play as he fulfils two important functions: He has licence to speak truth to power with no holds barred – in a context where no-one else dare do that, for fear of their lives – and he acts like the chorus in Greek drama – commenting on the characters and the action for the benefit of ...
Preeminent among these is the comedic actor Robert Armin, for whom several critics have suggested Shakespeare created the witty, even philosophical, fool roles of Feste, Touchstone, and Lear's...
In contrast to Kempe, Armin was a much more muted comic presence, at once playful and philosophical, and possessed of a fine singing voice. As Shakespeare's writing matured over the course of his career, so too did the roles for his principal comic. The low-comedy clown character evolved into the high-comedy fool.
