Misprision in the highest degree! Lady, cucullus non facit monachum; that’s as much to say as I wear not motley in my brain. Good madonna, give me leave to prove you a fool.
– William Shakespeare
Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 5. Lady Olivia’s clown Feste says this after she brands him a “dry fool” and orders him to be taken away. He is telling Olivia, in Latin, that “the cowl does not make a monk.” In other words appearance isn’t always the reality and she shouldn’t judge a book by the cover. While he may look the part of a fool, it does not make him foolish or without wit. And he will prove she is the fool – Olivia has gone into mourning for seven years for a brother who didn’t die recently. We come to learn that Feste is one of the play’s most intelligent characters.