Robert Armin

Armin changed the part of the clown or fool from the rustic servingman turned comedian to that of a high-comedy domestic wit.

The arrangement moved Armin to a life and a social circle quite different from what he might have expected as a Norfolk tailor.

Two years later, both Thomas Nashe (in Strange News) and Gabriel Harvey (in Pierce's Supererogation) mention him as a writer of ballads; none of his work in this vein, however, is known to have survived.

At some point in the 1590s, Armin joined a company of players patronised by William Brydges, 4th Baron Chandos.

The late quarto is associated with a revival by the King's Revels Children, a short-lived troupe of boy players led by Nathan Field, but it was almost certainly written around 1597.

The pair of books Armin published around the turn of the century demonstrate a performer with an interest in his craft.

The same year he published Quips upon Questions, a collection of seemingly extemporaneous dialogues with his marotte, named by him Signor Truncheon.

In this he demonstrates his style; instead of having a conversation with the audience, as Tarlton did, and entering into a battle of wits, he jests using multiple personas, improvised song, or by commenting on a person or event.

The 1605 edition changes "Curtain" to "Mundo" (that is, Globe); only in 1608 was he credited by name, though the earlier title pages would have sufficed to identify him for Londoners.

As Palmer continues, a true cynic does not belong in Arden, so the clown "must be a thoroughly good fellow at heart".

Lear's fool is hardly around for entertainment purposes; rather, he is present to forward the plot, remain loyal to the king, and perhaps to stall his madness.

[3][4] An alternative suggestion, however, is that Iago was originally acted by John Lowin, with Armin instead taking the smaller part of Othello's servant.

Robert Armin explored every aspect of the clown, from the natural idiot to the philosopher-fool; from serving man to retained jester.

In study, writing, and performance, Armin moved the fool from rustic zany to trained motley.

Ken Kesey, in an interview, summarizes Armin's ideas about the two kinds of fool: "That fool of Shakespeare's, the actor Robert Armin [a mistake for Will Kempe who is widely believed to have played Falstaff], became so popular that finally Shakespeare wrote him out of Henry IV.

Grosart)[11] Robert Armin is a significant character in Gary Blackwood's historical fiction The Shakespeare Stealer.

In the 1991 Pamela Dean novel Tam Lin, one of the major characters is Robert Armin (better known as Robin), a Classics and Theater student at a small college in the Midwestern U.S. during the early 1970s who has a surprisingly detailed knowledge of William Shakespeare's life and work.