#robert armin

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Photos: Robert Armin

Vanessa Redgrave photographed by Robert Armin, 1970s

Before I begin on the subject of messengers, let me first give a bit of background regarding one of the best subjects ever. Shakespearean Fools(I will try to not tone down any Bardolatry). Now, many if not most of Shakespeare’s Plays contain Fools or Clowns. The earlier ones( prior to 1599) mostly being Clowns. The Ones post 1599 mostly being Fools. More specifically ‘set’ or ‘artificial’ Fools. Those whose fooling is a job for which they have a happy talent, rather than those who are just considered well...to use the term of the time...natural. Of course there are many historical Fools of great renowned ( if you have any interest in Fools or Jesters I give the Highest of Recommendations to Fools are Everywhere by Beatrice K. Otto), I should get back on topic. Shakespeare’s Fools. Now, Shakespeare’s Fools were played primarily by one of two Actors. The Earlier Clowns ( Bottom, Dogberry, or Sir John Falstaff) played by one William Kemp. For one reason or another Kemp left the Chamberlains Men(later the Kingsmen) in 1599. Following Kemp’s departure the other Fools were performed by a man named Robert Armin. Armin, was a guy who knew his stuff when it came to Fools having published a book about the Subject (Fool upon Fool, or Six sorts of Sottes). It is thought Armin with his understanding of Fools was a Great help to Shakespeare regarding this new sort of Dramatic Fool. Armin brought to life such Fools as Feste, Lear’s Fool, Touchstone, The Porter, the Grave digger and others. He was considered so great at playing Fools that when Shakespeare collaborated (I think it was a collaboration) in Henry the Eighth, The reason ( to my understanding) that Will Sommers (A Fool who served Henry, Mary, and Elizabeth) wasn’t in it was because Armin had retired by then. Now, onto how this relates to the series and Mesengers and this ridiculous Headcanon of mine. One of the three Caretakers of Shakespeare’s Time was the Playwright Kit Marlowe. Marlowe defected to the ICS, and was also later Murdered. Leaving two Caretakers if I reckon correctly. Now what I think, is Shakespeare thought to induct Armin as a Caretaker, however came to the idea( under ProsperPoe’s advice) he’d work better as a Mesengers. So, upon Armin’s retirement from Acting he was introduced to things. After some proof (from a ProsperPoe) he was on board. However due to is Prime time soon ending it was decided he’d be taught to make a Tulpa. Only Armin decided instead to make Six instead. No Blake’s Seven but what are you going to do? So Robert Armin ended up making six Tulpas and began work as a Mesengers. However, he (they) decided to have a bit of fun with things. Each Armin answers to a different name regarding something from his acting or Writing career. One just answers to Robert Armin (or Bob). One answers to Clonico Munda Snuffe (one of several aliases he published under) One answers to Signior Truncheon ( a name he gave a baton that he’d have an Elizabethan Ventriloquist act with. Seriously) One answering to Feste (one of Shakespeare’s best Fools imho). One answering to Just Fool (as in Lear’s Fool). And one simply answering to Grave Digger. They of course change clothes now and then to screw with people. They would likely also be insistent on being called their chosen Alias. The only ones who can just address them as Robert Armin (if it isn’t just Robert Armin) is Will because they are cool with Will. Also ProsperPoe, because ProsperPoe frightens him ( he also got chased by Bees one time like Trinculo). As for what this ragtag group is called, Shakespeare’s Fools, Armin’s Fools, the Ship of Fools, the Nest of Ninnies, or the Motely Messenger(s). They have probably lost one of their members (Fool). And to call them, usually Will or Poe (usually Poe until Shakespeare’s act falls) call out, ‘DUCDAME DUCDAME DUCDAME’. So, there’s that. Tear it to shreds if you like, or make of it what you will. Just some foolish fun on my part.

The approach has much to recommend it, not least because our idea of the fool is indelibly shaped by those in Shakespeare, and in particular the fool in King Lear. Shakespeare wrote that part for Robert Armin, who also originated the roles of Feste and Touchstone. Armin wasn’t merely an actor, however; his book Foole Upon Foole (1600) studied the lives and natures of six fools, Somer among them.

There’s a potential role for Armin in everything Shakespeare wrote from 1601 to 1611, from Lavatch (All’s Well That Ends Well) and Thersites (Troilus and Cressida) to Autolycus (The Winter’s Tale) and Caliban (The Tempest).

Scholar Stanley Wells explains in Shakespeare & Co. that “after Armin’s recruitment Shakespeare began to create clowns who are more wistful, introverted, and musical: semi-choric commentators on the action.” These included Touchstone in As You Like It, Feste in Twelfth Night, and Lavatch in All’s Well That Ends Well. The disturbing, nihilistic clown who accompanies King Lear on the element-blasted hearth—“I am better than thou art now; I am a fool, thou art nothing”—was a role supposedly written with Armin’s particular genius in mind, as was Iago from Othello (though there is far from a scholarly consensus on the casting). Critic Frank Kermode speculates in The Age of Shakespeare “that if Armin had not joined the company these roles might not exist in the forms familiar to us.”

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