In “Hop-Frog,” Poe does not set the story in any particular location. In fact, there are very few specific references to any geographical location or historical period. Instead, the story is set in a royal court at some point in the past. Despite this lack of specificity, some inferences can be drawn from the narrator’s description of the court and its custom of employing court jesters:
At the date of my narrative, professing jesters had not altogether gone out of fashion at court. Several of the great continental “powers” still retained their “fools,” who wore motley, with caps and bells, and who were expected to be always ready with sharp witticisms, at a moment’s notice, in consideration of the crumbs that fell from the royal table. Our king, as a matter of course, retained his “fool.” The fact is, he required something in the way of folly—if only to counterbalance the heavy wisdom of the seven wise men who were his ministers—not to mention himself.
Though the narrator does not provide a date for his own narration, he suggests that this story took place at some point in the past, during a period of time in which the employment of court jesters was beginning to wane but had not been altogether discontinued. Further, the narrator’s reference to “continental ‘powers’” implies that the story takes place somewhere on the European continent.
