[The fool comes in and stands at the door holding out his hat. He has a pair of shears in the other hand.] It sounds to me like foolishness; and yet that cannot be, for the writer of this book, where I have found so much knowledge, would not have set it by itself on this page, and surrounded it with so many images and so many deep colours and so much fine gilding, if it had been foolishness.
fool. Give me a penny.
wise man [turns to another page]. Here he has written: ‘The learned in old times forgot the visible country.’ That I understand, but I have taught my learners better.
fool. Won’t you give me a penny?
wise man. What do you want? The words of the wise Saracen will not teach you much!
fool. Such a great wise teacher as you are will not refuse a penny to a Fool.
wise man. What do you know about wisdom?
fool. Oh, I know! I know what I have seen.
wise man. What is it you have seen?
fool. When I went by Kilcluan where the bells used to be ringing at the break of every day, I could hear nothing but the people snoring in their houses. When I went by Tubbervanach where the young men used to be climbing the hill to the blessed
