Stultifera Navis, The Ship of Fools, Roberts Plant

Foucault, in Madness and Civilization, describes how during the Renaissance the insane, the 'crazed and the crazy', were cast adrift in boats to sail the waterways of Europe; isolated in their difference from mainstream society.
His Ship of Fools was a floating asylum pre-empting the land based asylums. In the space of a few centuries the meaning of fool shifted from folly to madness.
The Sebastian Brandt Ship of Fools carried the spirit of the Reformation where the words of Luther would have been unheeded, and it is supposed to have suggested to Erasmus his famous 'Praise of Folly.'

Here sung the misterious gurus with his vocal and typical piercing, soaring, melismatic voice; the eerie, oracular medieval lyrics and dramatical guitar works, symply but deep phylosophical thoughts.

On waves of love my heart is breaking
And stranger still my self control I can't rely on anymore
New tides surprise - my world it's changing
Within this frame an ocean swells
behind this smile I know it well

Beneath a lover's moon I'm waiting
I am the pilot of the storm
adrift in pleasure I may drown
I built this ship - it is my making
And furthermore my self control I can't rely on anymore
I know why - I know why
Crazy on a ship of fools
Crazy on a ship of fools
Turn this boat around - back to my loving ground

Who claims that no man is an island
While I land up in jeopardy
more distant from you by degrees
I walk this shore in isolation
And at my feet eternity draws ever sweeter plans for me
I know why - I know why
Crazy on a ship of fools
Crazy on a ship of fools
Turn this boat around
back to my loving ground
Oh no, oh no

ship of fools