When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day.
But when I came to man’s estate,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
‘Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate,
For the rain it raineth every day.
– William Shakespeare
Twelfth Night, Act 5, Scene 1. Song sung by Feste, the Fool. The opening verses of the song with which Feste ends the play. He sings of knaves and thieves and foolish things, echoing the themes of deception and foolishness that dominate the play. But there is something melancholic in what he sings, as against the backdrop of life’s fun and foolishness, there is his warning of the rain that “raineth every day.”