Geraardsbergen Manuscript, Text 3 (fol. 104r)
The short French text, ‘Fol est qui fol boute’ is one of the only French items in the Geraardsbergen Manuscript.
Brussels – KBR – 837-45, fol. 104r: A short French text in the Geraardsbergen Manuscript (by courtesy of the KBR Brussels)
It runs:
You are mad if you
- shove a madman
- never doubt a madman
- have crazy friends
- make a fool of yourself
- reason with a lunatic
- marry a mad woman
But the most mad person of all is the one
Who lets his daughter marry a madman.
This text also appears in a number of French manuscripts, including BnF fr. 1555, where it is written out in full as part of a larger proverb collection.
detail from BnF fr. 1555, 77v.
Reproduced by kind permission of the BnF
www.gallica.bnf.fr
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