Speaking the truth, especially to power, is a risky business, occasionally even life-threatening. Better leave it to the professionals who know how to wrap it in humour so the receiver laughs before they have chance to chop anyone’s head off.
This from an anonymous fool in an 18th century Welsh text.
It’s mostly for saying the truth
That you get the harshest censure.
Am ddweud y gwir rhan amla
Y ceir y cerydd garwa.
Source: Anonymous fool, Barn ar Egwyddorion y Llywodraeth, Judgement on the Ideals of Government (1785), in Yr Anterliwt Goll, Emyr Wyn Jones, ed., (Aberystwyth: Llyfrgell Cenedlaethol Cymru, 1984), trans. William Dolby
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