Shakespeare "Fool"

"Better a witty fool than a foolish wit." - William Shakespeare

In Shakespeare’s plays, the rich and powerful are sometimes clueless, and the penniless “fools” are often the smartest guys in the room. Sound familiar? 

In our illustration we used a king and jester to represent the wise and foolish respectively. We then used text as a device to represent the quality of their thinking.

In contrast to his outward appearance, the fools’ thoughts are rich and dense, forming an elaborate jeweled crown. Likewise, the king’s are sparse and simplistic, forming a jester’s hat. 

The idea of the "witty fool" reminds us of Socrates' famous quotation "I know that I know nothing." Wisdom begins with knowing you're a fool, and we see this quotation as a challenge to engage the world with real curiosity, humility, and openness. As far as the arrogance and self confidence of the "foolish wit" - well let's just do our best to avoid that stuff, shall we? 

This is part of our "Most Absurd" Shakespeare collection. 

• 11x14 inch art print with white border 
• Premium, fine art paper made in New York 
• Elegant eggshell finish
• Ships in a a rigid, flat mailer. No need to unroll! 
• Fits into standard 11x14 frames (or a 16x20 frame matted to 11x14)