The Fool

The narrator of An Ròs a Leigheas (The Rose that Heals) is Thomas Moray, fool to King James the Fourth of Scotland. 

Throughout the world, the wealthy kept jesters in centuries gone by. Sometimes their humour could be too sharp, too pointed – I read of two who were sentenced to death for it! But these fools evaded their punishment: the first one was permitted a ‘last request’ – he asked his master to let him read the whole Bible, from cover to cover, before he died; the second was allowed to choose his method of execution – he chose ‘old age’.

Here is a traditional Scottish story.

A Highland laird had a fool – a young man about the same age as his own sons although he was childlike in the unusual and amusing things he said. Despite that, Gillespie – that was his name – would see to the heart of a complex matter when no-one else could make sense of it. The laird and the fool would often sit by the fireside of an evening chatting together.

As a mark of his esteem, the laird gave a fine staff to Gillespie. The fool carried the staff with pride as an emblem of his profession.

The years went by until the day came when the laird became ill. When he was at the point of death, he sent for the fool so that he could give him his blessing. He was careful in what he he said to him – he didn’t want to make Gillespie despondent. 

‘My blessing upon you, Gillespie,’ he said. ‘It seems that my time of death has come. I must leave.’

‘And where are you going?’ asked Gillespie.

‘Oh, I don’t really know,’ replied the laird.

‘You are leaving,’ said Gillespie, ‘but you don’t know where you’re going! Here, you take the staff – you’re a bigger fool than I am!’

(With thanks to the book An Iuchair Òir, sermons of the Reverend Calum MacLeod edited by Thomas MacCalmain, Stirling Tract Enterprise 1950.)