«Armine... thou art a foole and knaue». The Fools of Shakespeare's Romances

Shakespeare’s romances are hybrid and experimental texts displaying tragedy, comedy and wonder. The place of laughter in such peculiar plays thus offers an engaging research topic. The book constitutes an in-depth analysis of the star clown parts given to the actor Robert Armin in Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest and addresses a series of issues: how much of the Armin persona, outlook and acting style is present in the characters? What social, historical and cultural themes do they bring into play? What is their role within the texts? Is the way they raise laughter ambiguous, just as the nature of the texts themselves? How was Shakespeare influenced by earlier comic traditions? The book shows how a handful of usually neglected “fool” characters embody original ways of staging comedy and corroborate the meaning of collaboration in Shakespeare’s company.