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A hundred yards or so to the south-east of the new Globe Theatre in London, there is a vacant lot, surrounded by an iron fence that bears a bronze plaque which indicates that this is the site of the original Globe Theatre of 1599 (Kernan Performance… Theatre). The plays that are presented at the new Globe are still Shakespearean, but they necessarily. Yemdash differ in quite a number of respects. “Acting style… stage settings, props and machinery, swordplay, costumes, the speed with which the lines were delivered, length f performance, entrances and exits, boys playing the female roles” are all factors that have changed over the centuries (Kernan Performance…Theatre). However, one factor that has not changed is that audiences still appreciate a stock character that appears, in one guise or another, in almost every Shakespearean play- the clown. As Bente Videbaek points out in his book on Shakespearean clowns, the Bard used clowns to teach, guide and mediate, becoming a significant tool for interpreting to the audience the significance of the action (Nadon 332). Shakespeare employed characters that were obviously clowns, Falstaff, the fool from King Lear, Bottom in Midsummer Night’s Dream. There are also characte