Fool (english)

Aren’t you Edmund’s men? Shouldn’t you be trying to put my head on a pike or something?”
    “They’ve changed allegiance to me,” said Kent. “After the thrashing I gave them.”
    “Aye,” said squire one. “We’ve more to learn from this good knight.”
    “Aye,” said squire two. “And we were Edgar’s men, anyway. Lord Edmund is a scoundrel, if you don’t mind me saying, sir.”
    “And, dear Caius,” said I. “Do they know that you are a penniless commoner and can’t really maintain a fighting force as if you were, say-oh, I don’t know-the Earl of Kent?”
    “Excellent point, Pocket,” said Kent. “Good sirs, I must release you from your service.”
    “So we won’t be paid, then?”
    “My regrets, no.”
    “Oh, then we’ll take our leave.”
    “Fare thee well, keep your guard up, lads,” said Kent. “Fighting’s done with the whole body, not only the sword.”
    The two squires left the laundry with a bow.
    “Will they tell Edmund where we’re hiding?” I asked.
    “I think not, but you better get your kit on just the same.”
    “Laundress, how progresses my motley?”
    “Steamin’ by the fire, sir. Dry enough to wear indoors, I reckon. Did I hear it right that you put a dagger through Lord Edmund’s ear?”
    “What, a mere fool? No, silly girl. I’m harmless. A jab from the wit, a poke to the pride are the only injuries a fool inflicts.”
    “Shame,” said the laundress. “He deserves that and worse for how he treats your dim friend-” She looked away. “-and others.”
    “Why didn’t you just kill the scoundrel outright, Pocket?” asked Kent, kicking subtlety senseless and rolling it up in a rug.

    “Well, just shout it out, will you, you great lummox.”
    “Aye, like you’d never do such a thing, ‘Top of the morning; grim weather we’re having; I’ve started a bloody war!’”
    “Edmund has his own war.”
    “See, you did it again.”
    “I was coming to tell you when I found the girl ghost having a go at Drool. Then the lout leapt out the window and the rescue was on. The ghost implied that the bastard might be rescued by France. Maybe he’s allied with bloody King Jeff to invade.”
    “Ghosts are notoriously unreliable,” said Kent. “Did you ever consider that you might be mad and hallucinating the whole thing? Drool, did you see this ghost?”
    “Aye, I had a half a laugh wif her before I got frightened,” said Drool, sadly, contemplating his tackle through the steamy water. “I fink I gots deaf on me willie.”
    “Laundress, help the lad wash the death off his willie, would you?”
    “Not bloody likely,” said she.
    I held the tip of my coxcomb to stay any jingling and bowed my head to show my sincerity. “Really, love, ask yourself, What would Jesus do?”
    “If he had smashing knockers,” added Drool.
    “Don’t help.”
    “Sor-ry.”
    “War? Murder? Treachery?” reminded Kent. “Our plan?”
    “Aye, right,” said I. “If Edmund has his own war it will completely bollocks up our plans for civil war between Albany and Cornwall.”
    “All well and good, but you didn’t answer my question. Why didn’t you just slay the bastard?”
    “He moved.”
    “So you meant to kill him?”
    “Well, I hadn’t thought it through completely, but when I sent his dagger at his eye socket I believed that there might be a fatal outcome. And I must say, although I didn’t stay to revel in the moment, it was very satisfying. Lear says that killing takes the place of bonking in the ancient. You’ve killed a multitude of chaps, Kent. Do you find that to be the case?”
    “No, that’s a disgusting thought.”
    “And yet, with Lear lies your loyalty.”
    “I’m beginning to wonder,” said Kent, sitting down now on an overturned wooden tub. “Who do I serve? Why am I here?”
    “You are here, because, in the expanding ethical ambiguity of our situation, you are steadfast in your righteousness. It is to you, my banished friend, that we all turn-a light amid the dark dealings of family and politics. You are the moral backbone on which the rest of us hang our bloody bits. Without you we are merely wiggly masses of desire writhing in our own devious bile.”
    “Really?” asked the old knight.
    “Aye,” said I.
    “I’m not sure I want to keep company with you lot, then.”
    “Not like anyone else will have you, is it? I need to see Regan before my bastard ear piercing poisons our cause. Will you take her a message, Kent-er,