The Fool beneath the Knave
“I’ll explain allegorically, metaphorically, categorically and paregorically,” replied the clown, and gradually elevating the cart-wheel, he clasped the nave, and supported it with one hand. “There, that’s it to a tittle! Don’t you see the nave has got the upper hand of the fool? The nave’s you, and I’m me – the fool – by reason of being under you.”
Of the 22 ladies of the Ferrarese Court of Isabelle d'Este that are associated with the tarot trumps:
http://www.tarock.info/bertoni.htm
Signora Riminaldi, designated the 'Il Matto' card with the
legend `worth nought is the beauty without madness' (Nulla val la
beltà senza pazzia), is the subject of a verse according to Vitalli where she as Matto is also 'set under or beneath' (supposta) the 'smooth talker' (Barattino):
Original text:
"Par che l'angel, la stella, il sol, la luna
Col mondo, et chi con lui di viver brama,
Odiano la beltà, che il cielo aduna
Nel viso altier de la signora Mama.
Forsi per esser tra le Dee queste una
Che lor spogli del ben, che 'l valor ama,
O pur, per che ne morte, o ria fortuna
Dal fermo suo voler maj la richiama:
però dee creder fermamente ognuno
Ch'un spirtito malvagio habbia costej
Supposta solamente al Barattino*
Per poter dire i buoni tarocchi mej
Saran, s'avien ch'io giuochi, et questi uno
Vo trare il Matto ch'è cervel divino.
"It appears that the angel, star, sun, and moon
With the world, whom all covet to live with her,
Hate the beauty that the firmament assembles
In the haughty visage of Lady Mother.
Maybe to be one among these Goddesses
She is stripped of the good, of things to love,
Or because neither death nor guilty fortune
From her own firm will can ever recall her:
Everybody must firmly believe
That a wicked spirit has this woman;
Alone set under the smooth talker*
So able to say "this tarot most apt shall be
for myself, to play as I please, and I draw
this the Mad One that is the brain divine."
(Published in Berti and Vitali "Le carte di corte. I tarocchi" 1987 p.107-108, and discussed on Ltarot forum - where Vitalli translates it somewhat differently to mine above, corrections welcomed.)
*Supposta solamente al Barattino
'beneath alone the Baratinno' ',
Barattino= bagattino, the smallest sum, smooth talker, windbag.
Supposta - I am reading as to set under, a disciple or follower as in
the French `un suppost du divell' - a limb (that is, a follower) of
the devil.
Her wicked nature is also alluded to in that she is 'stripped of the
good, of values to love', an allusion to the concept of a privation
of substance (emptiness) being made comparitive to evil being a
privation of good.
Also perhaps we may see an allusion to her and Matto's `nothingness'
(Nulla) to her as being the empty space of heaven's face in which
the `things' (thus having positive existence and value) of heaven
exist.
More prosaically in the context of the game perhaps it was just meant
to refer to her having lost a lot at gambling, the other ladies
taking her for all she gambled!
Kwaw
