Pedigree of Fools
They say Lost Time married Ignorance, and had a son called I Thought, who married Youth, and had the following children: I Did Know, I Did Think, Who Would Have Expected.
Who Would Have Expected married Heedlessness, and had for children I All Right, To-morrow Will Do, Ther Plenty of Time, Next Opportunity.
Ther Plenty of Time married Doña I Did Think, and had for family I Forgot, I Know All About It, Nobody Can Deceive Me.
I Know All About It espoused Vanity, and begat Pleasure, who, marrying Tha Not Likely, became father to Let Us Enjoy Ourselves and Bad Luck.
Bad Luck took to wife Little Sense, and had a very large family, among whom were This Will Do, What Business Is It Of Theirs, It Seems To Me, I Not Possible.
Pleasure was widowed, and, marrying again, espoused Folly. Consuming their inheritance, they said one to the other, “Have Patience, let us spend our capital and enjoy ourselves this year, for God will provide for the next.” But Deception took them to prison, and Poverty to the workhouse, where they died.
Strange obsequies were performed at their funeral, at which were present the five Senses, Intellect, Memory, and Will, although in a pitiful condition. Repentance, who came somewhat late, found no seat, and had to stand the whole time, while Consolation and Contentment were represented by Desolation and Melancholy, daughters of Memory.
Despair, grandchild of the deceased, went about begging for several days, in which he could only collect six maravedies, with which he bought a rope and hanged himself from a turret, which is the end of the family of Fools.
Anon. (Seventeenth Century).