the Fool becomes the only one capable of speaking truth to the King and often takes on the role of revealing life's tragic nature to those around him. For Shakespeare, the trope became so well known that when Viola says of the clown Feste in Twelfth Night, "This fellow is wise enough to play the fool" (III.i.60), his audiences recognized it as a popular convention. Numerous other authors rendered interpretations of the wise fool across the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries from Hans Sachs to Montaigne. The image of the wise fool is as well found in numerous Renaissance artworks by a range of artists including Breughel, Bosch, and Holbein the Younger. In Spain, Cervantes' novel Don Quixote exemplifies the world of the wise fool through both its title character and his companion, Sancho Panza. Examples in modern literature and film Patchface, from George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels: a fool to King Stannis Baratheon who was the only survivor of a shipwreck that killed Stannis' parents. As a result, he was apparently driven mad and makes seemingly nonsensical statements. However, his words seem to prophecy significant events in the series, such as the Red Wedding. Gaston Bonaparte, from the Japanese writer Shusaku Endo's 1959 novel Wonderful Fool: protagonist Bonaparte is portrayed as a relative of Napoleon Bonaparte who visits Japan. He bumbles his way through troubles by naively ignoring or not understanding a series of problems and attacks, but leaves his Japanese friends enlightened. Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter series. See also Comedian Savant syndrome Court jester Feast of Fools Fool (stock character) Hero (comic hero) Shakespearian fool Solomon and Marcolf Further reading Idiots, Madmen, and Other Prisoners in Dickens by Natalie McKnight "The Wise Fool in the Slavic Oral and Literary Tradition" by Zuzana Profantová The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays by Michail Bachtin Wise Fools in Shakespeare by Robert Goldsmith "The Wisdom of Holy Fools in Postmodernity" by Peter C. Phan "Much Virtue In If" (Shakespeare Quarterly) by Maura Slattery Kuhn Notes Stock characters Knowledge Humor and wit characters