Think Jon Stewart In Jester Garb with Slapstick
A
jester,
joker,
jokester,
fool,
wit-cracker, or
prankster was a person employed to tell jokes and provide general entertainment, typically for a European
monarch or
courtier. Jesters are depicted to have typically worn brightly coloured clothes and eccentric hats in a
motley pattern. Their hats were especially distinctive; often made of cloth, they were floppy with three points, each of which had a
jingle bell
at the end. The three points of the hat represent donkey's ears and
nose and tail worn by jesters in earlier times. Other things distinctive
about the jester were his laughter and his mock
sceptre, known as a "bauble" or
marotte.
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."
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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."
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History
Early jesters were popular in
Ancient Egypt, and entertained Egyptian pharaohs. Jesters were popular with the Aztec people in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries.
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English royal court jesters
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.
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."
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.
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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.
End of tradition
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).
[cita
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