"Time there was and plenty, but from that cup no more"

The Annotated "Ship of Fools"

An installment in The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics.
By David Dodd
1997-98 Research Associate, Music Dept., University of California, Santa Cruz
Copyright notice
"Ship of Fools"
Words by Robert Hunter; music by Jerry Garcia
Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

Went to see the captain
strangest I could find
Layed my proposition down
Layed it on the line;
I won't slave for beggar's pay
likewise gold and jewels
but I would slave to learn the way
to sink your ship of fools

Ship of fools
on a cruel sea
Ship of fools
sail away from me

It was later than I thought
when I first believed you
now I cannot share your laughter
Ship of Fools

Saw your first ship sink and drown
from rocking of the boat
and all that could not sink or swim
was just left there to float
I won't leave you drifting down
but woah it makes me wild
with thirty years upon my head
to have you call me child

Ship of fools
on a cruel sea
Ship of fools
sail away from me

It was later than I thought
when I first believed you
now I cannot share your laughter
Ship of Fools

The bottles stand as empty
as they were filled before
Time there was and plenty
but from that cup no more
Though I could not caution all I yet may warn a few:
Don't lend your hand to raise no flag
atop no ship of fools

Ship of fools
on a cruel sea
Ship of fools
sail away from me

It was later than I thought
when I first believed you
now I cannot share your laughter
Ship of Fools
No I cannot share your laughter
Ship of Fools

"Ship of Fools"

Recorded on Covered by Elvis Costello on Deadicated.

First performance: February 22, 1974 at Winterland, San Francisco. Appeared in the second set between "Me and My Uncle" and "The Race is On." Also appearing for the first time in this show were "U.S. Blues" and "It Must Have Been the Roses."


Ship of Fools

Hieronymus Bosch's painting from the Louvre, "Ship of Fools" (ca. 1490)

woodcut image Woodcut, attributed to Albrecht Durer, from Sebastian Brant's Das Narrenschiff (1494)

From The Dictionary of the Middle Ages' article on Sebastian Brant (1457-1521):

"Brant's fame stems from Das Narrenschiff (The ship of fools), published in 1494. The book became so popular that within the first year it went through three editions. ...

In concept and style Das Narrenschiff belongs to the satiric genre of the Middle Ages, and stands in an old tradition, to a degree biblical in origin. ...

Brant sees follies as sins. This concept makes up the framework of his book: a ship--an entire fleet at first--sets off from Basel to the paradise of fools. ...

Each chapter chastizes a type of fool who is depicted graphically in the accompanying woodcut."

This note from a reader:

Subject: ship of fools
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 13:20:17 -0500
From: James Molenda

I read in Michael Foucault's Madness and Civilization that a ship of fools referred to the practice of putting the local 'insanes' onto ships to help as crew people; supposedly, 'regular' people thought that the fools, shipmen, and the sea all had an affinity for each other. so, when a new ship would port in a town, people would come and have a chuckle at the expense of the kind 'fools.' so, the sea was an escape for these well-wishing souls from the cruel sea of humanity on the mainland.

the excerpt comes from the intro, written by Jose Barchilon, m.d., of foucault's madness and civilization. on page vi:

Renaissance men developed a delightful, yet horrible way of dealing with their mad denizens: they were put on a ship and entrusted to mariners because folly, water, and sea, as everyone then "knew," had an affinity for each other. Thus, "Ship of Fools" crisscrossed the sea and canals of Europe with their comic and pathetic cargo of souls. Some of them found pleasure and even a cure in the changing surroundings, in the isolation of being cast off, while others withdrew further, became worse, or died alone and away from their families. The cities and villages which had thus rid themselves of their crazed and crazy, could now take pleasure in watching the exciting sideshow when a ship full of foreign lunatics would dock at their harbors . . .
Translation by Richard Howard, Vintage Books, a Division of Random House, 1988

if there is anything else i can help you out with on your project, just ask.

adios, james

Katherine Anne Porter's novel Ship of Fools (1962) uses the metaphor of the ship Vera to represent the entire world as it drifts into World War II. Her note at the start of the novel states:

"The title of this book is a translation from the German of Das Narrenschiff, a moral allegory by Sebastian Brant first published in Latin as Stultifera Navis in 1494. I read it in Basel in the summer of 1932 when I had still vividly in mind the impressions of my first voyage to Europe. When I began thinking about my novel, I took for my own this simple almost universal image of the ship of thie world on its voyage to eternity. It is by no means new--it was very old and durable and dearly familiar when Brant used it; and it suits my purpose exactly. I am a passenger on that ship. -- K.A.P."

Porter's book was made into a memorable movie with an all-star cast in 1965.

Gary Larson had a wonderful cartoon on the topic.


Though I Could Not Caution All

The title of an unpublished novel by yours truly. No Dead content.
First posted: August 22, 1995
Last revised: March 25, 2000