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The role of the fool is to provoke the powerful to question their convictions, preferably while avoiding a beating. Fools accomplish this not by hectoring their audience, but by broaching sensitive topics indirectly, often disguising their message in a joke or a tale. Writers and thinkers throughout history have adopted the fool's approach, and here Ralph Lerner turns to six of them--Thomas More, Francis Bacon, Robert Burton, Pierre Bayle, Benjamin Franklin, and Edward Gibbon--to elucidate the strategies these men employed to persuade the heedless, the zealous, and the overly confident to pause.

Political satire --- Fools and jesters --- Laughter --- Political science --- History and criticism. --- Political aspects. --- Language. --- More, Thomas, --- Bacon, Francis, --- Burton, Robert, --- Bayle, Pierre, --- Franklin, Benjamin, --- Gibbon, Edward, --- LITERARY CRITICISM --- TRAVEL --- General. --- Special Interest --- Literary. --- Administration --- Civil government --- Commonwealth, The --- Government --- Political theory --- Political thought --- Politics --- Science, Political --- Laughing --- Court fools --- Jesters --- Gibbon, Eduard --- Franklin, Venīamin, --- Franklin, V. --- Firānklīn, Binzhāmīn, --- Fu-lan-kʻo-lin, --- Fu-lan-kʻo-lin, Mu-chieh-ming, --- Franklin, Ben, --- Franklin, --- Franklin, B. --- Franklin, Beniamino, --- Tradesman of Philadelphia, --- Pirāṅḷin̲, Peñcamin̲, --- Франклин, Бенджамин, --- Franklin, Bendzhamin, --- פראנקלין, בנימין --- פראנקלין, בנימין, --- فرانكلين، بنجامين، --- فرانكلين، بنيامين --- فرانكلين، بنڇامين --- 富兰克林, --- Bayle, Peter, --- Beĭlʹ, Pʹer, --- Bayle, --- C. L. A. A. P. D. P., --- Democritus minor --- Démocrite --- Bacon de Verulam, François --- Bacon, François --- Moor, Thomas, --- Moore, Thomas, --- Mor, Tomas, --- More, Tomás, --- Moro, Thomaz, --- Moro, Tomás, --- Moro, Tommaso, --- Morus, Tamás, --- Morus, Thomas, --- Morus, Tomasz, --- מורוס, תומאס, --- Social sciences --- State, The --- Emotions --- Nonverbal communication --- Wit and humor --- Courts and courtiers --- Favorites, Royal --- Joking --- Satire --- Saunders, Richard, --- Political aspects --- History and criticism --- Language --- Bacon, Francis --- Bayle, Pierre --- Burton, Robert --- Gibbon, Edward --- Моръ, Томасъ, --- Morʺ, Tomasʺ, --- More, Thomas --- Thomas More --- Moro, Tommaso --- Morus, Thomas --- Morus, T. --- More, T. --- Moro, Tomás