Traveling within the World
2024-03-28T16:14:58Z
Kim Jurey
http://travelingwithintheworld.ning.com/profile/KimJurey
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Time To Laugh-Those Crazy Jesters by Porcelain Doll
tag:travelingwithintheworld.ning.com,2012-10-24:2185477:Topic:184485
2012-10-24T17:15:10.454Z
Kim Jurey
http://travelingwithintheworld.ning.com/profile/KimJurey
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/829727799?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/829727799?profile=original" width="220"></img></a> <br></br>A jester, or fool was both a historical person employed to entertain a ruler in medieval times and is a modern entertainer who performs at mostly medieval themed events. Jesters in medieval times are often thought to have worn brightly coloured clothes and eccentric hats in a motley pattern and their modern counterparts usually mimic this costume. As performers jesters…</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/829727799?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/829727799?profile=original" width="220"/></a><br/>A jester, or fool was both a historical person employed to entertain a ruler in medieval times and is a modern entertainer who performs at mostly medieval themed events. Jesters in medieval times are often thought to have worn brightly coloured clothes and eccentric hats in a motley pattern and their modern counterparts usually mimic this costume. As performers jesters have used storytelling, acrobatics, music, juggling and other skills to entertain their audiences.</p>
<p>Political significance<br/>The Royal Shakespeare Company provides historical context for the role of the fool:</p>
<p>In ancient times courts employed fools and by the Middle Ages the jester was a familiar figure. In Renaissance times, aristocratic households in Britain employed licensed fools or jesters, who sometimes dressed as other servants were dressed, but generally wore a motley (i.e. parti-coloured) coat, hood with ass's (i.e. donkey) ears or a red-flannel coxcomb and bells. Regarded as pets or mascots, they served not simply to amuse but to criticise their master or mistress and their guests. Queen Elizabeth (reigned 1558-1603) is said to have rebuked one of her fools for being insufficiently severe with her. Excessive behaviour, however, could lead to a fool being whipped, as Lear threatens to whip his fool.</p>
<p>One may conceptualize fools in two camps: those of the natural fool type and those of the licensed fool type. Whereas the natural fool was seen as innately nit-witted, moronic, or mad, the licensed fool was given leeway by permission of the court. In other words, both were excused, to some extent, for their behavior, the first because he "couldn't help it," and the second by decree.</p>
<p>Distinction was made between fools and clowns, or country bumpkins. The fool's status was one of privilege within a royal or noble household. His folly could be regarded as the raving of a madman but was often deemed to be divinely inspired. The 'natural' fool was touched by God. Much to Gonerill's annoyance, Lear's 'all-licensed' Fool enjoys a privileged status. His characteristic idiom suggests he is a 'natural' fool, not an artificial one, though his perceptiveness and wit show that he is far from being an idiot, however 'touched' he might be.</p>
<p>Scholar David Carlyon has cast doubt on the "daring political jester", calling historical tales "apocryphal", and concluding that "popular culture embraces a sentimental image of the clown; writers reproduce that sentimentality in the jester, and academics in the Trickster," but it "falters as analysis."</p>
<p>Jesters could also give bad news to the King that no one else would dare deliver. The best example of this is in 1340, when the French fleet was destroyed at the Battle of Sluys by the English. Phillippe VI's jester told him the English sailors "don't even have the guts to jump into the water like our brave French."</p>
<p>History<br/>Early jesters were popular in Ancient Egypt, and entertained Egyptian pharaohs. Jesters were popular with the Aztec people in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries.</p>
<p>English royal court jesters<br/>Many courts throughout English royal history employed entertainers and most had professional fools, sometimes called licensed fools. Entertainment included music, juggling, clowning, and the telling of riddles. Henry VIII of England employed a jester named Will Sommers.</p>
<p>During the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I of England, William Shakespeare wrote his plays and performed with his theatre company the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later called the King's Men). Clowns and jesters were featured in Shakespeare's plays, and the company's expert on jesting was Robert Armin, author of the book Fooled upon Foole. In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Feste the jester is described as "wise enough to play the fool."</p>
<p>James VI of Scotland was originally very lazy about reading things before signing them. His jester, George Buchanan (1506–82) tricked him into abdicating in favour of George for fifteen days. James got the point.</p>
<p>King James also employed a jester called Archibald Armstrong. During his lifetime Armstrong was given great honours at court. He was eventually thrown out of the King's employment when he over-reached himself and insulted too many influential people. Even after his disgrace, books telling of his jests were sold in London streets. He held some influence at court still in the reign of Charles I and estates of land in Ireland. Charles later employed a jester called Jeffrey Hudson who was very popular and loyal. Jeffrey Hudson had the title of Royal Dwarf because he was short of stature. One of his jests was to be presented hidden in a giant pie from which he would leap out. Hudson fought on the Royalist side in the English Civil War. A third jester associated with Charles I was called Muckle John.<br/><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/829727939?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/829727939?profile=original" width="220"/></a><br/>17th-century engraving of Will Sommers, Henry VIII's jester</p>
<p>End of tradition<br/>The tradition of court jesters came to an end in Britain when Charles I was overthrown in the Civil War. As a Puritan Christian republic, England under the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell had no place for such things as jesters. English theatre also suffered and a good many actors and entertainers relocated to Ireland where things were little better (see Irish theatre).[citation needed]</p>
<p>After the Restoration, Charles II did not reinstate the tradition of the court jester, but he did greatly patronize the theatre and proto-music hall entertainments, especially favouring the work of Thomas Killigrew. Though Killigrew was not officially a jester, Samuel Pepys in his famous diary does call Killigrew "The King's fool and jester, with the power to mock and revile even the most prominent without penalty" (12 February 1668). The last British nobles to keep jesters were the Queen Mother's family, the Bowes-Lyons.</p>
<p>In the 18th century, jesters had died out except in Russia, Spain and Germany.</p>
<p>In France and Italy, travelling groups of jesters performed plays featuring stylized characters in a form of theatre called the commedia dell'arte. A version of this passed into British folk tradition in the form of a puppet show Punch and Judy. In France the tradition of the court jester ended with the French Revolution.</p>
<p>In years as late as 1968, however, the Canada Council awarded a $3,500 grant to Joachim Foikis of Vancouver "to revive the ancient and time-honoured tradition of town fool".</p>
<p>Other countries<br/>Poland's most famous court jester was Stańczyk, whose jokes were usually related to political matters, and who later became a historical symbol for Poles.</p>
<p>In the 21st century, the jester is still seen at medieval-style fayres and pageants.</p>
<p>In 2004 English Heritage appointed Nigel Roder ("Kester the Jester") as the State Jester for England, the first since Muckle John 355 years previously. However following an objection by the National Guild of Jesters, English Heritage accepted they were not authorised to grant such a title.[11] Roder was succeeded as "Heritage Jester" by Pete Cooper ("Peterkin the Fool").</p>
<p>In Germany, Till Eulenspiegel is a folkloric hero dating back to medieval times and ruling each year over Fasching or Carnival time, mocking politicians and public figures of power and authority with political satire like a modern day court jester. He holds a mirror to make us aware of our times (Zeitgeist), and his sceptre or marotte is the symbol of his absolute and supreme rule.</p>
<p>In 17th century Spain Dwarves, often with other deformities, were employed as buffoons to entertain the king and his family especially the children. In Velázquez's painting Las Meninas two dwarves are included: Mari Bárbola a female dwarf from Germany with hydrocephalus, and Nicolasito Portusato from Italy. Mari Bárbola can also be seen in a later portrait of princess Margarita Teresa in mourning by Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo. There are other paintings by Velázquez which include court dwarves such as Prince Balthasar Charles With a Dwarf.</p>
<p>Tonga was the first royal court to appoint a court jester in modern times; Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, the King of Tonga, appointed JD Bogdanoff to that role in 1999. He was later embroiled in a financial scandal.</p>
<p>The jester as a symbol<br/>The root of the word "fool" is from the Latin follis, which means "bag of wind" or that which contains air or breath.</p>
<p>[edit] Fool in TarotIn Tarot, "The Fool" is the first card of the Major Arcana. The tarot depiction of the Fool includes a man (or less often, a woman) juggling unconcernedly or otherwise distracted, with a dog (sometimes cat) at his heels. The fool is in the act of unknowingly walking off the edge of a cliff, precipice or other high place. Another Tarot character is Death. In the Middle Ages, Death is often shown in Jester's garb because "The last laugh is reserved for death." Also, Death humbles everyone just as jesters make fun of everyone regardless of standing.<br/><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/829728829?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/829728829?profile=original" width="150"/></a></p>
<p>Fool in literatureIn literature, the jester is symbolic of common sense and of honesty, notably in King Lear, the court jester is a character used for insight and advice on the part of the monarch, taking advantage of his license to mock and speak freely to dispense frank observations and highlight the folly of his monarch. This presents a clashing irony as a "greater" man could dispense the same advice and find himself being detained in the dungeons or even executed. Only as the lowliest member of the court can the jester be the monarch's most useful adviser.</p>
<p>Author Alan Gordon also writes about jesters as advisers to the king, who actually make up a super-secret spy ring that try to keep peace and control the leaders of different countries. The Fool's Guild of these novels is portrayed as a mockery to the church, and they refer to Jesus Christ as "Their Savior, The First Fool.</p>
<p>Historical JestersStańczyk (c. 1480–1560), Polish jester<br/>William Sommers (died 1560), jester of Henry VIII of England<br/>Chicot (c. 1540–1591), jester of Henry III of France<br/>Archibald Armstrong (died 1672), jester of James VI of England<br/>Jeffrey Hudson (1619–c. 1682), "court dwarf" of Henrietta Maria of France</p>
<p>Added info</p>
<p>Varied beginnings<br/>Jesters might come from any walk of life, but often were young members of poor rural families who were known as the "class clowns" in their community. The king or members of his court might stumble across these funny guys in their travels and recruit them to work for the king. Sometimes a future jester, with his nonsensical ways, was a burden to his family, who gladly sent him off to live in the royal palace. Some were women, some were recruited as children, and some were dwarfs or hunchbacks--people with physical anomalies that added to their "humorous" appearance.</p>
<p>Jokesters<br/>Often, jesters had acting or musical skills, and sometimes they were also trained in gymnastics. They wore colorful costumes and entertained royalty by dancing, juggling, singing, and performing acrobatics. Their bottom line was always humor. Jesters would do anything, and were allowed to do anything, to make their monarchs laugh.</p>
<p>Confidants<br/>Jesters were sometimes trusted confidants of the king. While others in the court fawned over the king and flattered him, the jester was encouraged to speak the truth. Because of the jester's lower social status, he would not pose a threat to the king's power. And because he was not part of the political intrigue of the court--and was considered a fool--a king might feel it was safe to confide in a jester.</p>
<p>Advocates<br/>Because most jesters came from the common people rather than from royalty, they often were sympathetic to the plight of the king's subjects. Through using wit, jesters were sometimes able to persuade a king to take actions to help his subjects. This gave some jesters the status of folk heroes in their local communities.</p>
<p>Superstars<br/>Some jesters were "household names" in their day, the equivalent of popular TV comedians. Their jokes would be shared and repeated around the kingdom. They lived in the luxury of the palace, dining with the king and frequently receiving gifts from the queen or visiting dignitaries. But their lives could also be perilous. Jesters were allowed to insult royalty as part of their acts, but had to tread a careful line. Although many kings were fiercely loyal to their jesters, occasionally jesters were banished, or even executed, for crossing the line and offending the king with their jibes.</p>
How To Tell The Sex Of A Fly......
tag:travelingwithintheworld.ning.com,2011-03-21:2185477:Topic:112212
2011-03-21T22:30:52.272Z
Kim Jurey
http://travelingwithintheworld.ning.com/profile/KimJurey
<p><span class="font-size-4" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #ffffff;">How To Tell The Sex Of A Fly......</span></p>
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<li><span class="font-size-4" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #ffffff;"><a class="nolink">Posted by</a> <a href="http://thebluemoon.ning.com/profile/MarjabellaLaFey">Marjabella La Fey</a> <a class="nolink">on March 21, 2011 at 2:51pm in</a> <a href="http://thebluemoon.ning.com/group/lmao">LMAO…</a></span></li>
</ul>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-4" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #ffffff;">How To Tell The Sex Of A Fly......</span></p>
<ul>
<li><span class="font-size-4" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #ffffff;"><a class="nolink">Posted by</a> <a href="http://thebluemoon.ning.com/profile/MarjabellaLaFey">Marjabella La Fey</a> <a class="nolink">on March 21, 2011 at 2:51pm in</a> <a href="http://thebluemoon.ning.com/group/lmao">LMAO</a></span></li>
</ul>
<p><span class="font-size-4" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #ffffff;">A woman walked into the kitchen to find her Husband stalking around with a fly swatter.</span><br/><span class="font-size-4" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #ffffff;"><img width="314" src="http://api.ning.com/files/Nm3Pgdyn9zHjq0IimcjSwKdkxmUlbQt6sOKIXtmi8v8e2*h21Bb7K9O*8a*pZkSNRFklWtjO9GZFcfkhj4V01b8lA2ZOwJxp/fly...jpg" class="align"/></span><br/><span class="font-size-4" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #ffffff;">"What are you doing?"</span><br/><span class="font-size-4" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #ffffff;">She asked…</span><br/><br/><span class="font-size-4" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #ffffff;">"Hunting Flies"</span><br/><span class="font-size-4" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #ffffff;">He responded…</span><br/><br/><span class="font-size-4" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #ffffff;">"Oh! Killing any?"</span><br/><span class="font-size-4" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #ffffff;">She asked.</span><br/><br/><span class="font-size-4" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #ffffff;">"Yep, 3 males, 2 Females," he replied.</span><br/><br/><span class="font-size-4" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #ffffff;">Intrigued, she asked.</span><br/><span class="font-size-4" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #ffffff;">"How can you tell them apart?"</span><br/><br/><span class="font-size-4" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #ffffff;">He responded,</span><br/><span class="font-size-4" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #ffffff;">"3 were on a beer can,</span><br/><span class="font-size-4" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #ffffff;">2 were on the phone".</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-4" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #ffffff;"><a href="http://thebluemoon.ning.com/group/lmao/forum/topic/show?id=3809961%3ATopic%3A159016&xg_source=msg">http://thebluemoon.ning.com/group/lmao/forum/topic/show?id=3809961%3ATopic%3A159016&xg_source=msg</a></span></p>
The History of the Court Jester by Glenn Church
tag:travelingwithintheworld.ning.com,2011-02-24:2185477:Topic:105089
2011-02-24T19:22:45.508Z
Kim Jurey
http://travelingwithintheworld.ning.com/profile/KimJurey
The jester has a long, historical tradition. Contrary to modern perception, the jester is more than a clown or an entertainer. Although usually associated with medieval Europe, the jester goes back to the earliest<br />
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<p> period of civilization. Rome, China,…</p>
The jester has a long, historical tradition. Contrary to modern perception, the jester is more than a clown or an entertainer. Although usually associated with medieval Europe, the jester goes back to the earliest<br />
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<p> period of civilization. Rome, China, India, even Africa and pre-Columbus America had varying roles for a jester.<br/><a href="http://www.associatedcontent.com/image/261917/index.html" title="Oil painting of a jester with a lute by Renaissance painter Frans Hals"> <img src="http://i.acdn.us/image/A2619/261917/300_261917.jpg"/></a> <br/>It was in Europe where jesters had some of their greatest influence. Often called a fool, joker, clown or even less honorable names, the jester's position was actually one of entertainment and political advice. The jester often walked a fine line between the acceptable and the profane. This, however, was because the jester could speak of things no one else in a king's court dare. <br/><br/>Since the jester did outrageous things all the time, he could speak the grave truth and get away with it as something said in "jest". The jester could dispense advice to a king that no one else dare. Undoubtedly, many who wished to influence the king did so through the jester.<br/><br/>The fine line between entertainer and advisor did not give the jester immunity, however. Advice that was too critical could lead to the same fate as any other who opposed the king. Many jesters lost their jobs and lives by overstepping their verbal license.<br/><br/>A jester did not have to be of noble birth. He could be a commoner. He could be learned as a monk or a scholar. He could also be an apprentice of a trade or even a peasant. Jesters were often employed by nobles and could move up to the royal court, as their antics became known. As such, the jester was one of the few upwardly mobile positions in medieval times.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Jesters were entertainers foremost. Even their clothes were to make them look like a clown. With dangling bells, colorful and mismatching patterns, the jester was amusing to look at. The jester's cap or cockscomb had three points for the ears and tail of the ass.</p>
Jongleurs
tag:travelingwithintheworld.ning.com,2011-02-23:2185477:Topic:105096
2011-02-23T20:01:23.305Z
Kim Jurey
http://travelingwithintheworld.ning.com/profile/KimJurey
<p align="justify"><b><font color="#702810" size="4"><img alt="Medieval Musicians" border="0" height="273" src="http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/images/medieval-musicians.jpg" style="border: #808000 2px solid;" width="235"></img></font></b></p>
<p align="justify"><b><font color="#702810" size="4">Medieval Jongleurs</font></b><font color="#666633"><b><br></br></b></font><font color="#666633"><b>Definition and description of the Jongleurs: The Jongleurs can be described as a court attendant or other person such as a traveller who, for hire, recited or sang verses and performed other acts for the entertainment of the audience including thet of a conjuror or a…</b></font></p>
<p align="justify"><b><font size="4" color="#702810"><img height="273" width="235" src="http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/images/medieval-musicians.jpg" alt="Medieval Musicians" border="0" style="border: #808000 2px solid;"/></font></b></p>
<p align="justify"><b><font size="4" color="#702810">Medieval Jongleurs</font></b><font color="#666633"><b><br/></b></font><font color="#666633"><b>Definition and description of the Jongleurs: The Jongleurs can be described as a court attendant or other person such as a traveller who, for hire, recited or sang verses and performed other acts for the entertainment of the audience including thet of a conjuror or a juggler. Jongleur is the French word for juggler. Often the Jongleurs role was to assist the Troubadours or Minstrels.</b></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="4" color="#702810"><b>J</b></font><b><font size="4" color="#702810">ongleurs</font><font color="#666633"><br/>The Jongleurs were often collaborators or assistants of Medieval <a href="http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-music/troubadours.htm">Troubadours</a> or <a href="http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-music/minstrels.htm">Minstrels</a>. Jongleurs gained a reputation of itinerant entertainers of Medieval France and in Norman England where many were deemed to be vagabonds and untrustworthy. Their repertoire included extravagant skills in dancing, conjuring, acrobatics, and juggling. The Jongleurs also played a part in singing, and storytelling. Many were skilled in playing musical instruments, although their skills were not greatly recognised or rewarded.</font></b></p>
<p align="center"><img height="241" width="177" src="http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/images/jongleurs.jpg" alt="Jongleurs" border="0" style="border: #808000 2px solid;"/></p>
<p align="center"><b><font color="#666633">Jongleurs</font></b></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="4" color="#702810"><b>Skills of the J</b></font><b><font size="4" color="#702810">ongleurs</font> <font color="#666633"><br/></font></b><font color="#666633"><b>Jongleurs were required to be all round entertainers and have a variety of different skills. These skills are illustrated in the following description:</b></font></p>
<p align="center"><i><font color="#666633"><b>I can play the lute, vielle, pipe, bagpipe, panpipes, harp, fiddle, guittern, symphoy, psaltery, orginistrum, organ, tabor and the rote. I can sing a song well, and make tales to please young ladies, and can play the gallant for them if necessary. I can throw knives into the air and catch them without cutting my fingers.<br/>I can jump rope most extraordinary and amusing. I can balance chairs, and make tables dance.<br/>I can somersault, and walk doing a handstand.</b></font></i></p>
<p align="justify"><font color="#666633"><b>Refer to the</b></font> <b><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-music/index.htm">Medieval Music</a></span> <font color="#666633">index for facts and information about all of the above Medieval musical instruments.</font></b></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="4" color="#702810"><b>The J</b></font><b><font size="4" color="#702810">ongleurs and the Minstrels</font> <font color="#666633"><br/></font></b><font color="#666633"><b>The Minstrel was not as refined or poetic as the Troubadour. The role of the Medieval Minstrel often required many different entertainment skills due the expectations of their audiences. Minstrels and even troubadours would therefore employ</b></font> <b><font color="#666633">Jongleurs as assistants. The skills of the Jongleurs included the following:</font></b></p>
<ul type="square" style="color: #702810;">
<li><p align="justify"><font color="#666633"><b>Playing various Musical Instruments</b></font></p>
</li>
<li><p align="justify"><font color="#666633"><b>Reciting poems</b></font></p>
</li>
<li><p align="justify"><font color="#666633"><b>Singing</b></font></p>
</li>
<li><p align="justify"><font color="#666633"><b>Buffoonery which eventually led to roles as</b></font> <b><a href="http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-life/medieval-jesters.htm"><font color="#666633">Jesters</font></a></b></p>
</li>
<li><p align="justify"><font color="#666633"><b>Juggling</b></font></p>
</li>
<li><p align="justify"><font color="#666633"><b>Acrobatics</b></font></p>
</li>
<li><p align="justify"><font color="#666633"><b>Dancing</b></font></p>
</li>
<li><p align="justify"><font color="#666633"><b>Fire eating</b></font></p>
</li>
<li><p align="justify"><font color="#666633"><b>Conjuring</b></font></p>
</li>
<li><p align="justify"><font color="#666633"><b>Animal trainers - including animals such as dogs and monkeys in their shows</b></font></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p align="justify"><font size="4" color="#702810"><b>The Demise of the J</b></font><b><font size="4" color="#702810">ongleurs and the Minstrels</font> <font color="#666633"><br/>The Jongleurs gained a reputation of itinerant entertainers of the Medieval times in France and Norman England. Another type of performer of even lower rank than the Jongleurs were the gleemen, a travelling entertainer. In time the Jongleurs disappeared. Their reputations were such that they were replaced by the Minstrels who also suffered from a similar stigma.</font></b> <font color="#666633"><b>In 1469 a charter of <a href="http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-kings/king-edward-iv-biography.htm">King Edward IV</a> ordered all minstrels to join a <a href="http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-england/medieval-guilds.htm">Guild</a>. It was called the Guild of Royal Minstrels. Medieval Minstrels were required to either join the guild or to stop being minstrels.</b></font> <font color="#666633"><b>The travelling musicians of the Medieval era with their colorful lifestyle were eventually replaced by the court musicians, jesters and entertainers. The <a href="http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-music/waits.htm">Waits</a> became popular and extended their roles into becoming town musicians.</b></font></p>
<p align="center"><img height="122" width="448" src="http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/images/musicians-medieval.jpg" alt="Musicians Medieval" border="0" style="border: #808000 1px solid;"/></p>
<p align="center"><font color="#666633"><b>The Waits</b></font></p>
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Medieval Jesters
tag:travelingwithintheworld.ning.com,2011-02-23:2185477:Topic:104858
2011-02-23T19:58:32.553Z
Kim Jurey
http://travelingwithintheworld.ning.com/profile/KimJurey
<p align="center"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;">Facts and interesting information about Medieval Life,<br></br>specifically, Medieval Jesters</span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;">Medieval Jesters - Definition and Description<br></br>Definition and description of a jester: A Jester is a professional clown employed to entertain a king or nobleman in the middle ages. Also referred to as a fool, buffoon or clown. The Medieval jesters of the Middle Ages can be compared to the circus…</span></p>
<p align="center"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;">Facts and interesting information about Medieval Life,<br/>specifically, Medieval Jesters</span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;">Medieval Jesters - Definition and Description<br/>Definition and description of a jester: A Jester is a professional clown employed to entertain a king or nobleman in the middle ages. Also referred to as a fool, buffoon or clown. The Medieval jesters of the Middle Ages can be compared to the circus clowns of today. The class of professional court jesters reached its culminating point of influence and recognized place and function in the social organism during the Middle Ages.</span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;">The Role of Medieval Jesters<br/>Medieval Jesters played a minor role in court life but certainly brightened up the entertainments. The history of court jesters dated back before the Medieval era of the Middle Ages, which they are most closely associated with. Medieval jesters were responsible for bringing a smile to the face of a monarch who was feeling angry or who was feeling unwell. The role of the Medieval jester was to amuse his master, to excite him to laughter by sharp contrast, to prevent the over-oppression of state affairs, and, in harmony with a well-known physiological precept, by his liveliness at meals to assist his lord's digestion.</span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;">The Clothing of Medieval Jesters</span><br/><span style="color: #c0c0c0;">The clothing of Medieval court jesters - what did they wear? The heads of Medieval jesters were shaved, their coats were motley and the breeches tight with generally one leg different in colour from the other. The head was covered with a garment resembling a monk's cowl, which fell over the breast and shoulders. The first Medieval jesters wore a hat depicting the ears of an ass - the asses tail was then added to his costume. The clothes worn by the court jester moved on to gaudy, brightly colored and humorous attire. The Medieval jesters cloth hat, called a Fool's hat, was most distinctive consisting of three points with a jingle bell at the end of each point. A court jester would also carry a mock sceptre called a bauble which was adorned by a carved head or the inflated bladder of an animal.</span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;">Medieval Jesters - Freedom of speech</span><br/><span style="color: #c0c0c0;">The Medieval Jester held privileges which were not afforded to many other persons at court. The court jester was one of the few characters in the court who could freely speak his mind without causing offence and somebody who could use humor to mock, jibe and joke about the lords, ladies and nobles of the court. Jesters came from a wide variety of backgrounds and many of them were well educated. The predecessors of the Medieval jesters were the <a href="http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-music/jongleurs.htm">Jongleurs</a> and some jesters were recruited from this band of entertainers.</span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;">Medieval Jesters - Lord of Misrule or Master of the Revels</span><br/><span style="color: #c0c0c0;">The role of the Medieval jester, and the privileges accorded to him, were also given to the Lord of Misrule who was the master of the Christmas revels. These mock-monarchs began their reign on Allhallows Eve, and misruled till Candlemas. Stow writes: "In the feast of Christmas there was in the King's House, wheresoever he lodged, a Lord of Misrule or Master of merry disports, and the like had ye in the house of every nobleman of honour or good worship, were he spiritual or temporal." During this time the ordinary rules of life were turned topsy-turvy as masters served their servants. The Lord of Misrule presided over all of this, and had the power to command anyone to do anything during the holiday period.</span></p>
Fools Are Everywhere by Beatrice K. Otto
tag:travelingwithintheworld.ning.com,2011-02-22:2185477:Topic:104376
2011-02-22T19:34:05.206Z
Kim Jurey
http://travelingwithintheworld.ning.com/profile/KimJurey
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<tbody><tr><td bgcolor="#FFFFFF" valign="top" width="410"><p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">An excerpt from</span><br></br><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Fools Are Everywhere</span><br></br><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">The Court Jester Around the World…</span><br></br></p>
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<tbody><tr><td width="410" valign="top" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">An excerpt from</span><br/><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Fools Are Everywhere</span><br/><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">The Court Jester Around the World</span><br/><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Beatrice K. Otto</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Read an <a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/640914in.html">interview</a> with the author.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #333333;"><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino;">Fooling Around the World:</span></span><br/><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">The History of the Jester</span><br/><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">(from Chapter 1: Facets of the Fool and Chapter 7: Stultorum Plena Sunt Omnia, or Fools Are Everywhere)</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;"> </span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">"Who Is Not a Fool?" ["Qui non stultus?"]</span><br/><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">—Horace (65-8 B.C.), Satires, 2.3.158</span></p>
<blockquote><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Then come jesters, musicians and trained dwarfs,</span><br/><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">And singing girls from the land of Ti-ti,</span><br/><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">To delight the ear and eye</span><br/><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">And bring mirth to the mind.</span><br/><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">—Sima Xiangru (ca. 179-117 B.C.), Rhapsody on the Shanglin Park</span></blockquote>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">The jester is an elusive character. The European words used to denote him can now seem as nebulous as they are numerous, reflecting the mercurial man behind them: fool, buffoon, clown, jongleur, jogleor, joculator, sot, stultor, scurra, fou, fol, truhan, mimus, histrio, morio. He can be any of these, while the German word Narr is not so much a stem as the sturdy trunk of a tree efflorescent with fool vocabulary. The jester's quicksilver qualities are equally difficult to pin down, but nevertheless not beyond definition.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">The Chinese terms used for "jester" now seem vaguer than the European, most of them having a wider meaning of "actor" or "entertainer." In Chinese there is no direct translation of the English "jester," no single word that to the present-day Chinese conjures an image as vividly as "court jester," fou du roi, or Hofnarr would to a Westerner. In Chinese the jester element often has to be singled out according to context, although the key character you does seem to have referred specifically to jesters, originally meaning somebody who would use humor to mock and joke, who could speak without causing offense, and who also had the ability to sing or dance: "The you was also allowed a certain privilege, that is, his 'words were without offence' . . . but the you could not offer his remonstrances in earnest, he had to make use of jokes, songs and dance." The term is often combined with other characters giving differing shades to his jesterdom, an acting or a musical slant, for example: paiyou, youren, youling, changyou, lingren, linglun. All could include musical and other talents, chang suggesting music, ling, playing or fooling, and pai a humorous element to bring delight. Several of these terms are too frequently translated as "actor" regardless of where they appear on the etymological chain of evolution and even though they were used long before the advent of Chinese drama.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Perhaps the earliest antecedents of the European court jester were the comic actors of ancient Rome. Several Latin terms used in medieval references to jesters (including numerous church condemnations of them), such as scurrae, mimi, or histriones, originally referred either to amusing hangers-on or to the comic actors and entertainers of Rome. Just as there is now no clear distinction between the terms for "actor" and "jester" in Chinese, so the Latin terms could merge the two. If there was no formal professional jester in Rome, the comic actors fulfilled his functions, sometimes even bearing a striking physical resemblance to what is usually considered a medieval and Renaissance archetype. With periodic imperial purges against actors for their outspokenness, many of them took to the road and fanned out across the empire in search of new audiences and greater freedom. Successive waves of such wandering comics may well have laid the foundations for medieval and Renaissance jesterdom, possibly contributing to the rising tide of folly worship that swept across the Continent from the late Middle Ages.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">An individual court jester in Europe could emerge from a wide range of backgrounds: an erudite but nonconformist university dropout, a monk thrown out of a priory for nun frolics, a jongleur with exceptional verbal or physical dexterity, or the apprentice of a village blacksmith whose fooling amused a passing nobleman. Just as a modern-day television stand-up comedian might begin his career on the pub and club circuit, so a would-be jester could make it big time in court if he was lucky enough to be spotted. In addition, a poet, musician, or scholar could also become a court jester.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">The recruiting of jesters was tremendously informal and meritocratic, perhaps indicating greater mobility and fluidity in past society than is often supposed. A man with the right qualifications might be found anywhere: in Russia "they were generally selected from among the older and uglier of the serf-servants, and the older the fool or she-fool was, the droller they were supposed and expected to be. The fool had the right to sit at table with his master, and say whatever came into his head." Noblemen might keep an eye out for potential jesters, and a letter dated 26 January 1535/36 from Thomas Bedyll to Thomas Cromwell (ca. 1485-1540) recommends a possible replacement for the king's old jester:</span></p>
<blockquote><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Ye know the Kinges grace hath one old fole: Sexten as good as myght be whiche because of aige is not like to cotinew. I haue spied one yong fole at Croland whiche in myne opinion shalbe muche mor pleasaunt than euer Sexten was . . . and he is not past xv yere old.</span></blockquote>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Fuller's History of the Worthies of England (1662) gives an account of the recruiting of Tarlton, jester to Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603), that further illustrates this informality:</span></p>
<blockquote><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Here he was in the field, keeping his Father's Swine, when a Servant of Robert Earl of Leicester . . . was so highly pleased with his happy unhappy answers, that he brought him to Court, where he became the most famous Jester to Queen Elizabeth.</span></blockquote>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">A dwarf-jester called Nai Teh (Mr. Little) at the court of King Mongkut of Siam (r. 1851-68), described by Anna Leonowens in Anna and the King of Siam, was similarly recruited:</span></p>
<blockquote><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">He was discovered by one of the King's half-brothers on a hunting trip into the north and brought to Bangkok to be trained in athletic and gymnastic tricks. When he had learned these, he was presented to the king as a comedian and a buffoon.</span></blockquote>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">A German, Paul Wüst, declined an offer of a post as jester with the sort of brazen dismissiveness that explains why he was asked. When Duke Eberhard the Bearded of Würtemburg (1445-96) invited him to be his jester he replied, "My father sired his own fool; if you want one too, then go and sire one for yourself" ("Mein Vater hat einen Narren für sich gezeugt, willst du aber einen Narren haben, so zeuge dir auch einen"). The same story is attributed to Will Somers, who uses the joke to mock Henry's predilection for chalking up wives:</span></p>
<blockquote><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">His Majesty after some discourse growing into some good liking of him, said; fellow, wilt thou be my fool? who answered him again, that he had rather be his own father's still, then the king asking him why? he told him again, that his father had got him a fool for himself, (having but one wife) and no body could justly claim him from him: now you have had so many wives, and still living in hope to have more, why, of some one of them, cannot you get a fool as he did? and so you shall be sure to have a fool of your own.</span></blockquote>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">The post of court jester might also appeal to somebody in need of a safe haven. The thirteenth-century French tale of Robert le Diable has him fleeing a populace baying for blood and forcing his way past the footmen to gain access to the emperor, who duly takes him under his wing as a jester, saying that nobody should be allowed to beat him. Alfred de Musset's play Fantasio (1834) is about a dandy whose job as jester allows him to escape and evade creditors, and a Scottish miscellany tells us how one of the most roguish historical jesters found his vocation:</span></p>
<blockquote><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Archie Armstrong . . . after having long distinguished himself as a most dexterous sheep-stealer, and when Eskdale at last became too hot for him, on account of his nefarious practices, he had the honour of being appointed jester to James I. of England, which office he held for several years.</span></blockquote>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Tarlton tended pigs, Archy stole sheep, and Claus Hinsse (d. 1599), jester to Duke Johann Friedrich of Pomerania (d. 1600), began his working life as a cowherd. Wamba, "son of Witless," the jester in Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, was, like Tarlton, a swineherd, and Claus Narr (Fool), one of Germany's most famous and long-serving jesters, was tending geese when he was recruited. He was jester to four Saxon electors and one archbishop during the last quarter of the fifteenth century and first quarter of the sixteenth, and there are more than six hundred stories about him. One day when the first of his patrons, Elector Ernst (d. 1486), was traveling through Ranstadt with a lot of horses and wagons, Claus became curious about all the commotion and went to see what was happening. Worried that his geese would be stolen, he secured the goslings by putting their necks through his belt while he carried the older geese under his arms. When Ernst saw him he laughed at his simplicity and decided he was a born jester. He asked Claus's father's permission to take him to court:</span></p>
<blockquote><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">"That would be great, Sir! I'd be relieved of a great encumbrance thereby; the youth is no good to me—he makes nothing but trouble in my house and stirs up the whole village with his pranks." ["Sehr gern, Gnädiger Herr, ich würde dadurch eines grossen Verdrusses überhoben, denn der Junge ist mir nichts nütze, in meinem Hause macht er nichts als Unruh, und durch seine Possen wiegelt er dass ganze Dorf auf."]</span></blockquote>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Ernst then gave Claus's father twenty guilders as compensation for the strangled goslings and other gifts besides. The story is an insight into the charitable element often involved in the recruiting of "naturals." To a poor family, a natural might be a heavy burden, and it could clearly be a relief to have him taken in and looked after by a wealthy family. Generally speaking there is little to suggest that this was not done in a humane and kindly manner, although in England there was a law allowing the estates of a natural to be handed over to a person offering to care for him, which could lead to their being recruited under false pretenses.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">A similar story is told of Jamie Fleeman (1713-78), the Scottish jester to the laird of Udny. He complemented his jesting duties with those of a cowherd and goose guardian, and when he one day grew irritated by the geese wandering willy-nilly, he twisted some straw rope around their necks and started walking home, unaware that they were being throttled one by one. By the time he realized it was too late, and since it was a rare breed of geese, he would have been in big trouble. So he dragged the corpses into the poultry yard and stuffed their throats with food. When asked whether the geese were safe and sound, he replied cheerfully, "Safe! they're gobble, gobble, gobblin' as if they had nae seen meat for a twalmonth! Safe! Ise warran' they're safe aneuch, if they hae nae choked themsells."</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">In India the same entrance requirements prevailed: make me laugh and you're in. Tenali Rama, one of the three superstar jesters of India, is said to have earned his position as jester by making King Krsnadevaraya laugh. According to one story, he contrived for the king's guru to carry him around on his shoulders within sight of the king. Outraged at the humiliation of his holy man, the king sent some guards out to beat the man riding on the guru's shoulders. Tenali Rama, smelling impending danger, jumped down and begged forgiveness of the guru, insisting that to make amends he should carry him on his own shoulders. The guru agreed, and when the guards arrived the guru was duly beaten. The king found the trick amusing enough to appoint Tenali Rama his jester. In China, despite the abundance of anecdotes about jesters once they enter royal service, there is very little background information available. Nevertheless the universal jester skills displayed by the Chinese jesters suggest that their appointment was as meritocratic as in Europe.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">A description of Rabelais's Panurge encompasses many of the jester's characteristics: "Irreverent, libertine, self-indulgent, witty, clever, roguish, he is the fool as court jester, the fool as companion, the fool as goad to the wise and challenge to the virtuous, the fool as critic of the world." He could be juggler, confidant, scapegoat, prophet, and counselor all in one. If we follow his family tree along its many branches we encounter musicians and actors, acrobats and poets, dwarfs, hunchbacks, tricksters, madmen, and mountebanks.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;"> </span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">A Cavalcade of Cavorting Fools</span></p>
<blockquote><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun, it shines everywhere.</span><br/><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">—William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (3.1.39-40)</span></blockquote>
<blockquote><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">We have all seen how an appropriate and well-timed joke can sometimes influence even grim tyrants. . . . The most violent tyrants put up with their clowns and fools, though these often made them the butt of open insults.</span><br/><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">—Desiderius Erasmus, Praise of Folly</span></blockquote>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">The court jester is a universal phenomenon. He crops up in every court worth its salt in medieval and Renaissance Europe, in China, India, Japan, Russia, America and Africa. A cavalcade of jesters tumble across centuries and continents, and one could circle the globe tracing their footsteps. But to China the laurels. China has undoubtedly the longest, richest, and most thoroughly documented history of court jesters. From Twisty Pole and Baldy Chunyu to Moving Bucket and Newly Polished Mirror, it boasts perhaps more of the brightest stars in the jester firmament than any other country, spanning a far wider segment of time. The jester's decline began with the rise of the stage actor as the Chinese theater became fully established during the Yuan dynasty. In many respects actors seem to have taken up the jester's baton not only in entertaining their patrons, but also in offering criticism and advice no less clear for being couched in wit. Perhaps only in ancient Rome did jesters and actors overlap so much.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">In comparison with those of China, the numerous jesters of Europe, although flourishing for some four hundred years, are something of a dazzling display of shooting stars. Perhaps because the European court jesters were so inextricably linked with the tradition of folly that straddled the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, their time was relatively short-lived, and they died out more or less as the fashion for folly faded. But for as long as they lasted, which was no mere blip, their influence permeated court life. It is a common belief that Europe was the center of the court jester's cosmos, providing the control against which other jesters, such as they are, may be measured. Yet in a sense Europe is the exception rather than the rule, precisely because the fortunes of the European court jesters rose and fell with the tsunami-scale wave of medieval and Renaissance fool mania that engulfed the Continent. The concept of folly with all its variegated hues permeated Europe at all levels for several centuries, and it is against this backdrop of colorful and often contradictory manifestations of "folly" that the European jester must be seen. There were certainly jesters before the tidal wave began to swell, but it is on its crest that we see them come surfing in.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Although the jester died out as a court institution (if not as a function), about the sixteenth or seventeenth century in China and the early eighteenth in Europe, there have been pockets of resistance to his demise. European homes less grand than those of kings and prelates harbored jesters for a century or two longer than the courts, a domestic jester being recorded at Hilton Castle in county Durham in the eighteenth century and a Scottish jester, Shemus Anderson (d. 1833), at Murthley Castle, Perthshire. The Queen Mother's family, the Bowes-Lyons, was "the last Scottish family to maintain a full-time jester." A history of the manor of Gawsworth describes a Samuel Johnson (1691-1773) as "one of the last of the paid English jesters. . . . In addition to his being employed as jester or mirth-maker by the manorial Lord of Gawsworth, he was a welcome addition at parties given by the neighbouring country families, when he had free license to bandy his witticisms, and to utter and enact anything likely to enliven the company, and to provoke mirth and laughter."</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">In Persia the autocratic Shah Naseredin (r. 1848-96) had all his courtiers quaking except the jester Karim Shir'ei, whose name means "opium addict" but also implies someone of lazy or sleepy demeanor. Karim Shir'ei would ridicule the whole court, including the shah. Once the shah asked whether there was a shortage of food, and the jester said "Yes, I see Your Majesty is eating only five times a day." One member of the shah's entourage had the title Saheb Ekhtiyar ("Authorized" [by the shah]). When they were out traveling Karim Shir'ei's donkey stopped at a gate, and the jokester found a pretext to mock the courtier by addressing the ass: "If you want to stop you are Saheb Ekhtiyar [authorized], and if you want to go ahead, you are also Saheb Ekhtiyar [authorized]." Like many famous jesters before him, his name is still used as a peg for jibes and jokes.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Perhaps the most recent examples of the court jester are among the ritual clowns of African and American tribes whose mocking, corrective, and unbridled topsy-turvy antics have been documented by twentieth-century anthropologists. These are not all strictly speaking court jesters, in that they do not usually serve one master, belonging more to the whole tribe or village. Also, their license is often limited to specific periods, although during such festivals or rituals their freedoms and duties accord with those of the permanently privileged jester. However, there are some tribes that have had permanently appointed jesters, such as the African Wolof jesters and the Sioux "contrary," or heyhoka, and "jesters . . . were also attached to many African monarchs. They were frequently dwarfs, and other oddities; and their duties included besides the playing of jokes, the singing of the praises of their rulers. . . . 'But it must not be thought that these bards were mere flatterers . . . they also had licence to make sharp criticisms.'"</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">The court jester is universal not merely in having been at home in such diverse cultures and eras, but also in taking his pick from the same ragbag of traits and talents no matter when or where he occurs. Above all he used humor, whether in the form of wit, puns, riddles, doggerel verse, songs, capering antics, or nonsensical babble, and jesters were usually also musical or poetic or acrobatic, and sometimes all three. Some physical difference from the norm was common whether it was in being a dwarf or hunchback or in having a gawky or gangly physique or a loose-limbed agility—his movements might be clumsy or nimble, but they should be somehow exaggerated or unusual. There is a Ming dynasty description of a jester that captures this, for besides always hitting the mark with his gilded tongue, he would "unleash his body and fling his limbs around, drumming his feet and flapping his tongue; he was steeped in wisdom." "Capering" is the word that springs to mind, perhaps a physical reflection of his verbal agility:</span></p>
<blockquote><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">I have seen</span><br/><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Him caper upright, like a wild morisco</span><br/><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Shaking . . . his bells.</span></blockquote>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;"> </span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">The Importance of Being Jest Earnest</span></p>
<blockquote><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">But this Will Summers was of an easie nature, and tractable disposition, who . . . gained not only grace and favour from his Majesty, but a general love of the Nobility; for he was no carry-tale, nor whisperer, nor flattering insinuater, to breed discord and dissension, but an honest plain down-right, that would speak home without halting, and tell the truth of purpose to shame the Devil; so that his plainness mixt with a kind of facetiousness, and tartness with pleasantness made him very acceptable into the companies of all men.</span><br/><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">A Pleasant History of the Life and Death of Will Summers (1676)</span></blockquote>
<blockquote><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">In short, the King liked him so well, that he did few Things without Archy's Advice, in so much, that he could have scarce had greater Power had he been made Regent of the Kingdom.</span><br/><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">The Ass Race (1740)</span></blockquote>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Of at least equal importance with his entertainer's cap was the jester's function as adviser and critic. This is what distinguishes him from a pure entertainer who would juggle batons, swallow swords, or strum on a lute or a clown who would play the fool simply to amuse people. The jester everywhere employed the same techniques to carry out this delicate role, and it would take an obtuse king or emperor not to realize what he was driving at, since "other court functionaries cooked up the king's facts for him before delivery; the jester delivered them raw." An informal survey of the man in the street has shown that most people will pinpoint the jester's right to speak his mind as one of his salient characteristics. I have encountered only one person who considers this to have been more myth than reality:</span></p>
<blockquote><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">There are many stories which show a jester as the only person who could counsel a stubborn king, and as such the myth of the court jester suggests that jesters could act as a check on the whimsical power of absolute monarchy. . . . I have been engaged in producing and reproducing a common myth of jesters. Even though the jesters dance right next to the power of the king, the text has been depoliticized in that it has effaced the history of the fool, and elaborated on images conjured up by Erasmus, then Shakespeare, in the task of making jesting reasonable and responsible, and thus political in modern times. . . . The respected, responsible, official jesters only functioned in small historical windows of possibility, for example: fourteenth and fifteenth century Italy and around the turn of the seventeenth century in England.</span></blockquote>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Even if the jester's famous veracity were only a myth, it would have been established long before Erasmus. And we have seen the impressive extent to which jesters everywhere were allowed and encouraged to offer counsel and to influence the whims and policies of kings, by no means being limited to "small historical windows of possibility." We have seen numerous examples of a jester advising or correcting his monarch and the recorded instances are particularly abundant in China. The Chinese records give us an idea of just how effective a jester could be in tempering the ruler's excesses, for the occasions when his words of warning were either ignored or punished are heavily outnumbered by those when he was heeded and even rewarded.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">It is in the nature of jesters to speak their minds when the mood takes them, regardless of the consequences. They are neither calculating nor circumspect, and this may account for the "foolishness" often ascribed to them. Jesters are also generally of inferior social and political status and are rarely in a position (and rarely inclined) to pose a power threat. They have little to gain by caution and little to lose by candor—apart from liberty, livelihood, and occasionally even life, which hardly seems to have been a deterrent. They are peripheral to the game of politics, and this can reassure a king that their words are unlikely to be geared to their own advancement. Jesters are not noted for flattery or fawning. The ruler can be isolated from his courtiers and ministers, who might conspire against him. The jester too can be an isolated and peripheral figure somehow detached from the intrigues of the court, and this enables him to act as a kind of confidant.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">The jester also had humor at his disposal. He could soften the blow of a critical comment in a way that prevented a dignified personage from losing face. Humor is the great defuser of tense situations. Among the Murngin tribe of Australia it is the duty of the clown to act outrageously, ludicrously imitating a fight if men begin to quarrel. In making them laugh at him, he distracts their attention from their own fight and dispels their aggression. Quintilian (ca. 35-100) comments on the power of jesters' humor to carry the day:</span></p>
<blockquote><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Now, though laughter may be regarded as a trivial matter, and an emotion frequently awakened by buffoons, actors or fools, it has a certain imperious force of its own which it is very hard to resist. . . . It frequently turns the scale in matters of great importance. [Cum videatur autem res levis et quae ab scurris, mimis, insipientibus denique saepe moveatur, tamen habet vim nescio an imperiosissimam et cui repugnari minime potest. . . . Rerum autem saepe . . . maximarum momenta vertit.]</span></blockquote>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">The foolishness of the jester, whether in his odd appearance or his levity, implies that he is not passing judgment from on high, and this may be less galling than the "holier than thou" corrective of an earnest adviser. One of the most effective techniques the jester uses to point out his master's folly is allowing him to see it for himself. Rather than contradicting the king, the jester will agree with a harebrained scheme so wholeheartedly that the suggestion is taken to a logical extreme, highlighting its stupidity. The king can then decide for himself that maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">The jester is in a sense on the side of the ruler. The relationship was often very close and amiable, and the jester was almost invariably a cherished rather than a tolerated presence. This leads to the kindliness of jesters: they could be biting in their attacks, but there is usually an undercurrent of good-heartedness and understanding to their words. If they talk the king out of slicing up some innocent, it is not only to save him from the king's wrath but also to save the king from himself—they can be the only ones who will tell him he suffers from moral halitosis.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">The jester is also perceived as being on the side of the people, the little man fighting oppression by the powerful. By fooling wisely ("en folastrant sagement"), the jester often won favor among the people ("gaigna de grace parmy le peuple"). In the folk perception of southern India a king was hardly considered a king without his jester, and the continuing appeal of the court jester in India, in stories and comic books, is perhaps equaled only in Europe. He may have disappeared from the courts and corridors of power, but he still has a powerful hold on the collective imagination. Yet he is no rebel or revolutionary. His detached stance allows him to take the side of the victim in order to curb the excesses of the system without ever trying to overthrow it—his purpose is not to replace one system with another, but to free us from the fetters of all systems:</span></p>
<blockquote><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Under the dissolvent influence of his personality the iron network of physical, social and moral law, which enmeshes us from the cradle to the grave, seems—for the moment—negligible as a web of gossamer. The Fool does not lead a revolt against the Law, he lures us into a region of the spirit where, as Lamb would put it, the writ does not run.</span></blockquote>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">In Europe and India the most eminent jesters were household names, as top-class comedians are today, and stories about their jokes and tricks circulated freely, as they still do in India—there is even a kind of lentil soup named after Birbal. The star jesters of China may also have enjoyed this celebrity status, as Ban Gu's biography of Dongfang Shuo suggests:</span></p>
<blockquote><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #333333;">Shuo's jokes and sallies, his divinations and guesses, shallow and inconsequential though they are, were passed around among the ordinary run of people, and there was no stripling or cowherd who failed to be quite dazzled by them.</span></blockquote>
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<blockquote><hr/><p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #c0c0c0;"><a name="copyright" id="copyright">Copyright notice:</a> Excerpted from pages 1-6 and 233-247 of Fools Are Everywhere: The Court Jester Around the World by Beatrice K. Otto, published by the University of Chicago Press. ©2001 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that this entire notice, including copyright information, is carried and provided that the University of Chicago Press is notified and no fee is charged for access. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the University of Chicago Press.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #c0c0c0;"> </span></p>
<hr/><p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #c0c0c0;">Beatrice K. Otto</span><br/><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #c0c0c0;"><a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo3615397.html">Fools Are Everywhere: The Court Jester Around the World</a></span><br/><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #c0c0c0;">©2001, 444 pages, 49 halftones, 66 line drawings</span><br/><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #c0c0c0;">Cloth $55.00 ISBN: 978-0-226-64091-4</span><br/><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia,palatino; color: #c0c0c0;">Paper $27.50 ISBN: 978-0-226-64092-1</span></p>
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Elizabethan Jesters
tag:travelingwithintheworld.ning.com,2011-02-22:2185477:Topic:104374
2011-02-22T19:28:40.302Z
Kim Jurey
http://travelingwithintheworld.ning.com/profile/KimJurey
<h4 align="center"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><b><font color="#778ED6" size="4">Elizabethan Times - Elizabethan Jesters<br></br></font></b><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>Elizabethan Court Jesters played a minor role in court life but certainly brightened up the entertainments! The history of court jesters dated back before the Medieval era of the Middle Ages, which they are most closely associated with. Queen Elizabeth would have enjoyed the antics of her father famous court jester - Will Somers.…</b></font></span></h4>
<h4 align="center"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><b><font size="4" color="#778ED6">Elizabethan Times - Elizabethan Jesters<br/></font></b><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>Elizabethan Court Jesters played a minor role in court life but certainly brightened up the entertainments! The history of court jesters dated back before the Medieval era of the Middle Ages, which they are most closely associated with. Queen Elizabeth would have enjoyed the antics of her father famous court jester - Will Somers. Court jesters were responsible for bringing a smile to the face of a monarch who was feeling angry or who was feeling unwell. The court jesters of the renaissance period can be compared to the circus clowns of today. The first court jesters wore a hat depicting the ears of an ass - the asses tail was added to his costume. The clothes worn by the court jester moved on to gaudy, brightly colored and humerous attire. The court jesters cloth hat was most distinctive consisting of three points with a jingle bell at the end of each point. A court jester would also carry a mock sceptre called a bauble which was adorned by a carved head or the inflated bladder of an animal!</b></font></span></h4>
<ul type="square" style="color: #697fbf;">
<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><b><font size="4" color="#778ED6">Interesting Facts and Information about</font></b> <font size="4" color="#778ED6"><b>Elizabethan Jesters</b></font><font face="Times New Roman" size="3" color="#778ED6"><b><br/></b></font><b><font face="Times New Roman" color="#CCCCCC">The role of the fool or Elizabethan Jesters were changing. The Elizabethan jesters played a dual role as Elizabethan jesters and Elizabethan Actors. The most famous Elizabethan jesters were:</font></b></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>Richard Tarleton (or Tarlton) was a jester for Queen Elizabeth an actor and a playwright</b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>William Kempe was an Elizabethan jester who was one of the principal actors in the plays of William Shakespeare</b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>Robert Armin (c.1568-1615) was an Elizabethan jester who was one of the principal actors in the plays of William Shakespeare</b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>Thomas Skelton, the "Late Fool of Muncaster Castle" also served a Court Jester in the late 1500's. According to tradition, 'Tom Fool' and 'tomfoolery' both originated with Thomas Skelton</b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>There were also women who played Elizabethan jesters!</b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>Lucretia the Tumbler</b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>Jane the Fool</b></font></span></p>
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<p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><b><font size="4" color="#778ED6">Interesting Facts and Information about</font></b> <font size="4" color="#778ED6"><b>Elizabethan Jesters featured in the plays of William Shakespeare</b></font><font face="Times New Roman" size="3" color="#778ED6"><b><br/></b></font><b><font face="Times New Roman" color="#CCCCCC">The popularity of Elizabethan jesters is reflected in the plays of the period. William Shakespeare featured jesters in many of his plays including:</font></b></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>A Fool in Timon of Athens</b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>The Clown in Othello </b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>Costard in Love's Labours Lost</b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>Feste in Twelfth Night</b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>Launcelot Gobbo in The Merchant of Venice</b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>Lavache in All's Well That Ends Well</b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream</b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>Touchstone in As You Like It</b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>The Fool in King Lear</b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>Thersites in Troilus and Cressida</b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>Trinculo in The Tempest</b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>Two Clowns in Hamlet</b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>Yorick in Hamlet</b></font></span></p>
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<p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><b><font face="Times New Roman" color="#CCCCCC">William Shakespeare also portrayed his character 'Bottom' wearing an asses head!</font></b></span></p>
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<li><p align="center"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"> </span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>Interesting Facts and information about Elizabethan Jesters</b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>People, events and Elizabethan Jesters during the Elizabethan Era</b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>Famous Male Elizabethan Jesters - Richard Tarleton (or Tarlton), William Kempe, Robert Armin, Thomas Skelton</b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>Famous women Elizabethan jesters - Lucretia the Tumbler and Jane the Fool</b></font></span></p>
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<li><p align="justify"><span style="color: #c0c0c0;"><font color="#CCCCCC"><b>Elizabethan Jesters featured in the plays of William Shakespeare</b></font></span></p>
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Jesters and fools
tag:travelingwithintheworld.ning.com,2011-01-31:2185477:Topic:97391
2011-01-31T18:16:06.168Z
Kim Jurey
http://travelingwithintheworld.ning.com/profile/KimJurey
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<p>"Motley's the only wear." Jacques in <em>As You Like It</em> (2.7.34) craves the freedom of speech traditionally granted the court jester, whose costume--multicoloured and patched--proclaimed his eccentricity. Female fools were rare, though there was one "Jane the Fool" mentioned in Queen Elizabeth's accounts.</p>
<p>The fool or jester was a familiar sight in the courts of Renaissance princes and nobles, and some achieved considerable fame. Will Somers used to have rhyming contests with his master, Henry VIII, and after his death had several works written about him. As late as 1676, a book was published on Somers: <em>A Pleasant History of the Life and Death of Will Summers.</em> In Shakespeare's lifetime, Thomas <a shape="rect" href="http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/drama/contemporaries/greene.html">Nashe</a> wrote a play (punning on the season and the name), <em>Summer's Last Will and Testament;</em> and Robert Armin wrote about him.</p>
<p>By Elizabeth's time, the professional, stage fool had become better known. <a shape="rect" href="http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/society/court%20life/fools.html#tarleton">Tarleton*</a>, <a shape="rect" href="http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/stage/acting/kempe.html">Kempe</a> and <a shape="rect" href="http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/stage/acting/kempe.html">Armin</a> had special parts written for them, the latter two in Shakespeare's plays.</p>
<h3>"Natural" and "artificial" fools</h3>
<p>The "natural" fool was someone who was by nature--by birth--foolish; we would say menatally disabled. Poor nutrition and inadequate medical care produced a much larger number of such people than we are accustomed to today, and some of them were lucky, or clever, enough to make a living from their simplicity. It was after all a society that found madness (mental illness) <a shape="rect" href="http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/society/city%20life/bedlam.html">entertaining</a>.</p>
<p>The <a shape="rect" href="http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/society/court%20life/fools.html#artificial">"artificial*</a>" fool was altogether different. He deliberately acted simplicity, oddity, or eccentricity, in order to entertain, and sometimes indirectly to give <a shape="rect" href="http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/society/court%20life/fools.html#advice">advice*</a>: "This is not altogether fool, my Lord," says the disguised Kent to Lear, after the Fool has indirectly pointed out Lear's own foolishness (1.4.153). As Lear's Fool knows, the fool was traditionally given licence to speak out where others had to be silent.</p>
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Shakespeare's Henry V
tag:travelingwithintheworld.ning.com,2011-01-04:2185477:Topic:86764
2011-01-04T03:24:46.028Z
Kim Jurey
http://travelingwithintheworld.ning.com/profile/KimJurey
Henry V <br></br>
Act 3 Scene 6 <br></br>
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William Shakespeare <br></br>
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Montjoy, the French minstrel, arrives at King Henry's court to deliver a message of defiance from his king.<br></br>
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Tucket. Enter Montjoy.<br></br>
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Montjoy: You know me by my habit.<br></br>
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King Henry: Well then, I know thee: what shall I know of thee?<br></br>
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Montjoy: My master's mind.<br></br>
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King Henry: Unfold it.<br></br>
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Montjoy: Thus says my King: 'Say thou to Harry of England,…
Henry V <br/>
Act 3 Scene 6 <br/>
<br/>
William Shakespeare <br/>
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Montjoy, the French minstrel, arrives at King Henry's court to deliver a message of defiance from his king.<br/>
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<br/>
<br/>
Tucket. Enter Montjoy.<br/>
<br/>
Montjoy: You know me by my habit.<br/>
<br/>
King Henry: Well then, I know thee: what shall I know of thee?<br/>
<br/>
Montjoy: My master's mind.<br/>
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King Henry: Unfold it.<br/>
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Montjoy: Thus says my King: 'Say thou to Harry of England, Though we seemed dead, we did but sleep. Advantage is a better soldier than rashness. Tell him we could have rebuked him at Harfleur, but that we thought not good to bruise an injury until it were full ripe. Now we speak upon our cue, and our voice is imperial: England shall repent his folly, see his weakness, and admire our sufferance. Bid him therefore consider of his ransom, which must proportion the losses we have digested; which in weight to re-answer, his pettiness would bow under. For our losses, his exchequer is too poor; for th'effusion of our blood, the muster of his kingdom too faint a number; and for our disgrace, his own person kneeling at our feet but a weak and worthless satisfaction. To this add defiance: and tell him for conclusion, he hath betrayed his followers, whose condemanation is pronounced.' So far my King and master; so much my office.<br/>
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King Henry: What is thy name? I know thy quality.<br/>
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Montjoy: Montjoy.
A History of April Fools
tag:travelingwithintheworld.ning.com,2010-11-07:2185477:Topic:73407
2010-11-07T15:36:14.414Z
Kim Jurey
http://travelingwithintheworld.ning.com/profile/KimJurey
<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">April Fools' Day, sometimes called All Fools' Day, is one of the most light-hearted days of the year. Its origins are uncertain. Some see it as a celebration related to the turn of the seasons, while others believe it stems from the adoption of a new calendar.…</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">April Fools' Day, sometimes called All Fools' Day, is one of the most light-hearted days of the year. Its origins are uncertain. Some see it as a celebration related to the turn of the seasons, while others believe it stems from the adoption of a new calendar.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br/></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">New Year's Day Moves</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br/></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Ancient cultures, including those of the Romans and Hindus, celebrated New Year's Day on or around April 1. It closely follows the vernal equinox (March 20th or March 21st.) In medieval times, much of Europe celebrated March 25, the Feast of Annunciation, as the beginning of the new year.In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII ordered a new calendar (the Gregorian Calendar) to replace the old Julian Calendar. The new calendar called for New Year's Day to be celebrated Jan. 1. That year, France adopted the reformed calendar and shifted New Year's day to Jan. 1. According to a popular explanation, many people either refused to accept the new date, or did not learn about it, and continued to celebrate New Year's Day on April 1. Other people began to make fun of these traditionalists, sending them on "fool's errands" or trying to trick them into believing something false. Eventually, the practice spread throughout Europe.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br/></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Problems With This Explanation</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br/></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">There are at least two difficulties with this explanation. The first is that it doesn't fully account for the spread of April Fools' Day to other European countries. The Gregorian calendar was not adopted by England until 1752, for example, but April Fools' Day was already well established there by that point. The second is that we have no direct historical evidence for this explanation, only conjecture, and that conjecture appears to have been made more recently.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br/></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Constantine and Kugel</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br/></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Another explanation of the origins of April Fools' Day was provided by Joseph Boskin, a professor of history at Boston University. He explained that the practice began during the reign of Constantine, when a group of court jesters and fools told the Roman emperor that they could do a better job of running the empire. Constantine, amused, allowed a jester named Kugel to be king for one day. Kugel passed an edict calling for absurdity on that day, and the custom became an annual event."In a way," explained Prof. Boskin, "it was a very serious day. In those times fools were really wise men. It was the role of jesters to put things in perspective with humor."This explanation was brought to the public's attention in an Associated Press article printed by many newspapers in 1983. There was only one catch: Boskin made the whole thing up. It took a couple of weeks for the AP to realize that they'd been victims of an April Fools' joke themselves.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br/></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br/></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Observances Around the World</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br/></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"></p>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This tradition eventually spread elsewhere like to Britain and Scotland in the 18th century and was introduced to the American colonies by the English and the French. Because of this spread to other countries, April Fool's Day has taken on an international flavor with each country celebrating the holiday in its own way.</span></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">In Scotland, for instance, April Fool's Day is devoted to spoofs involving the buttocks and as such is called Taily Day. The butts of these jokes are known as April 'Gowk', another name for cuckoo bird. The origins of the "Kick Me" sign can be traced back to the Scottish observance.</span></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">In England, jokes are played only in the morning. Fools are called 'gobs' or 'gobby' and the victim of a joke is called a 'noodle.' It was considered back luck to play a practical joke on someone after noon.</span></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">In Rome, the holiday is known as Festival of Hilaria, celebrating the resurrection of the god Attis, is on March 25 and is also referred to as "Roman Laughing Day."</span></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">In Portugal, April Fool's Day falls on the Sunday and Monday before lent. In this celebration, many people throw flour at their friends.</span></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Huli Festival is celebrated on March 31 in India. People play jokes on one another and smear colors on one another celebrating the arrival of Spring.So, no matter where you happen to be in the world on April 1, don't be surprised if April fools fall playfully upon you.</span></font></div>
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<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Sources:</p>
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<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><a href="http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aprilfools1.html">http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aprilfools1.html</a></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><a href="http://www.april-fools.us/history-april-fools.htm">http://www.april-fools.us/history-april-fools.htm</a></p>
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