THE COURT FOOL.--THE NORMANS AND THEIR GABS.--EARLY HISTORY OF COURT
FOOLS.--THEIR COSTUME.--CARVINGS IN THE CORNISH CHURCHES.--THE
BURLESQUE SOCIETIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES.--THE FEASTS OF ASSES, AND
OF FOOLS.--THEIR LICENCE.--THE LEADEN MONEY OF THE FOOLS.--THE
BISHOP'S BLESSING.
From the employment of minstrels attached to the family, probably arose
another and well-known character of later times, the court fool, who
took the place of satirist in the great households. I do not consider
what we understand by the court fool to be a character of any great
antiquity.
It is somewhat doubtful whether what we call a jest, was really
appreciated in the middle ages. Puns seem to have been considered
as elegant figures of speech in literary composition, and we rarely
meet with anything like a quick and clever repartee. In the earlier
ages, when a party of warriors would be merry, their mirth appears
to have consisted usually in ridiculous boasts, or in rude remarks,
or in sneers at enemies or opponents. These jests were termed by the
French and Normans _gabs_ (_gabæ_, in mediæval Latin), a word supposed
to have been derived from the classical Latin word _cavilla_, a mock
or taunt; and a short poem in Anglo-Norman has been preserved which
furnishes a curious illustration of the meaning attached to it in the
twelfth century. This poem relates how Charlemagne, piqued by the
taunts of his empress on the superiority of Hugh the Great, emperor
of Constantinople, went to Constantinople, accompanied by his _douze
pairs_ and a thousand knights, to verify the truth of his wife's story.
They proceeded first to Jerusalem, where, when Charlemagne and his
twelve peers entered the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, they looked so
handsome and majestic, that they were taken at first for Christ and
his twelve apostles, but the mystery was soon cleared up, and they were
treated by the patriarch with great hospitality during four months.
They then continued their progress till they reached Constantinople,
where they were equally well received by the emperor Hugo. At night
the emperor placed his guests in a chamber furnished with thirteen
splendid beds, one in the middle of the room, and the other twelve
distributed around it, and illuminated by a large carbuncle, which gave
a light as bright as that of day. When Hugh left them in their quarters
for the night, he lent them wine and whatever was necessary to make
them comfortable; and, when alone, they proceeded to amuse themselves
with _gabs_, or jokes, each being expected to say his joke in his
turn. Charlemagne took the lead, and boasted that if the emperor Hugh
would place before him his strongest "bachelor," in full armour, and
mounted on his good steed, he would, with one blow of his sword, cut
him through from the head downwards, and through the saddle and horse,
and that the sword should, after all this, sink into the ground to the
handle. Charlemagne then called upon Roland for his _gab_, who boasted
that his breath was so strong, that if the emperor Hugh would lend him
his horn, he would take it out into the fields and blow it with such
force, that the wind and noise of it would shake down the whole city of
Constantinople. Oliver, whose turn came next, boasted of exploits of
another description if he were left alone with the beautiful princess,
Hugh's daughter. The rest of the peers indulged in similar boasts, and
when the _gabs_ had gone round, they went to sleep. Now the emperor of
Constantinople had very cunningly, and rather treacherously, made a
hole through the wall, by which all that passed inside could be seen
and heard, and he had placed a spy on the outside, who gave a full
account of the conversation of the distinguished guests to his imperial
master. Next morning Hugh called his guests before him, told them what
he had heard by his spy, and declared that each of them should perform
his boast, or, if he failed, be put to death. Charlemagne expostulated,
and represented that it was the custom in France when people retired
for the night to amuse themselves in that manner. "Such is the custom
in France," he said, "at Paris, and at Chartres, when the French are
in bed they amuse themselves and make jokes, and say things both of
wisdom and of folly."
_Si est tel custume en France, à Paris e à Cartres,
Quand Franceis sunt culchiez, que se giuunt e gabent,
E si dient ambure e saver e folage._
But Charlemagne expostulated in vain, and they were only saved from the
consequence of their imprudence by the intervention of so many miracles
from above.[66]
[66] "Charlemagne, an Anglo-Norman Poem of the Twelfth Century, now
first published, by Francisque Michel," 12mo., 8vo., London, 1836.
In such trials of skill as this, an individual must continually have
arisen who excelled in some at least of the qualities needful for
raising mirth and making him a good companion, by showing himself more
brilliant in wit, or more biting in sarcasms, or more impudent in his
jokes, and he would thus become the favourite mirth-maker of the court,
the boon companion of the chieftain and his followers in their hours of
relaxation. We find such an individual not unusually introduced in the
early romances and in the mythology of nations, and he sometimes unites
the character of court orator with the other. Such a personage was the
Sir Kay of the cycle of the romances of king Arthur. I have remarked
in a former chapter that Hunferth, in the Anglo-Saxon poem of Beowulf,
is described as holding a somewhat similar position at the court of
king Hrothgar. To go farther back in the mythology of our forefathers,
the Loki of Scandinavian fable appears sometimes to have performed a
similar character in the assembly of his fellow deities; and we know
that, among the Greeks, Homer on one occasion introduces Vulcan acting
the part of joker (γελωτοποιὸς) to the gods of Olympus. But all these
have no relationship whatever to the court-fool of modern times.
The German writer Flögel, in his "History of Court Fools,"[67] has
thrown this subject into much confusion by introducing a great mass
of irrelevant matter; and those who have since compiled from Flögel,
have made the confusion still greater. Much of this confusion has
arisen from the misunderstanding and confounding of names and terms.
The mimus, the joculator, the ministrel, or whatever name this class
of society went by, was not in any respects identical with what we
understand by a court fool, nor does any such character as the latter
appear in the feudal household before the fourteenth century, as
far as we are acquainted with the social manners and customs of the
olden time. The vast extent of the early French _romans de geste_, or
Carlovingian romances, which are filled with pictures of courts both of
princes and barons, in which the court fool must have been introduced
had he been known at the time they were composed, that is, in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, contains, I believe, no trace of such
personage; and the same may be said of the numerous other romances,
fabliaux, and in fact all the literature of that period, one so rich in
works illustrative of contemporary manners in their most minute detail.
From these facts I conclude that the single brief charter published
by M. Rigollot from a manuscript in the Imperial Library in Paris,
is either misunderstood or it presents a very exceptional case. By
this charter, John, king of England, grants to his _follus_, William
Picol, or Piculph (as he is called at the close of the document), an
estate in Normandy named in the document Fons Ossanæ (Menil-Ozenne in
Mortain), with all its appurtenances, "to have and to hold, to him and
to his heirs, by doing there-for to us once a year the service of one
_follus_, as long as he lives; and after his death his heirs shall
hold it of us, by the service of one pair of gilt spurs to be rendered
annually to us."[68] The service (_servitium_) here enjoined means the
annual payment of the obligation of the feudal tenure, and therefore
if _follus_ is to be taken as signifying "a fool," it only means that
Picol was to perform that character on one occasion in the course of
the year. In this case, he may have been some fool whom king John had
taken into his special favour; but it certainly is no proof that the
practice of keeping court fools then existed. It is not improbable
that this practice was first introduced in Germany, for Flögel speaks,
though rather doubtfully, of one who was kept at the court of the
emperor Rudolph I. (of Hapsburg), whose reign lasted from 1273 to 1292.
It is more certain, however, that the kings of France possessed court
fools before the middle of the fourteenth century, and from this time
anecdotes relating to them begin to be common. One of the earliest
and most curious of these anecdotes, if it be true, relates to the
celebrated victory of Sluys gained over the French fleet by our king
Edward III. in the year 1340. It is said that no one dared to announce
this disaster to the French king, Philippe VI., until a court fool
undertook the task. Entering the king's chamber, he continued muttering
to himself, but loud enough to be heard, "Those cowardly English! the
chicken-hearted Britons!" "How so, cousin?" the king inquired. "Why,"
replied the fool, "because they have not courage enough to jump into
the sea, like your French soldiers, who went over headlong from their
ships, leaving those to the enemy who showed no inclination to follow
them." Philippe thus became aware of the full extent of his calamity.
The institution of the court fool was carried to its greatest degree of
perfection during the fifteenth century; it only expired in the age of
Louis XIV.
[67] "Geschichte der Hofnarren, von Karl Friedrich Flögel," 8vo.
Liegnitz und Leipzig, 1789.
[68] The words of this charter, as given by Rigollot, are:--"Joannes,
D G., etc. Sciatis nos dedisse et præsenti charta confirmasse
Willelmo Picol, follo nostro, Fontem Ossanæ, cum omnibus
pertinenciis suis, habendum et tenendum sibi et hæredibus suis,
faciendo inde nobis annuatim servitium unius folli quoad vixerit;
et post ejus decessum hæredes sui eam tenebunt, et per servitium
unius paris calcarium deauratorum nobis annuatim reddendo.
Quare volumus et firmiter præcipimus quod prædictius Piculphus
et hæredes sui habeant et teneant in perpetuum, bene et in
pace, libere et quiete, prædictam terram."--Rigollot, Monnaies
inconnues des Evêques des Innocens, etc., 8vo., Paris, 1837.
It was apparently with the court fool that the costume was introduced
which has ever since been considered as the characteristic mark of
folly. Some parts of this costume, at least, appear to have been
borrowed from an earlier date. The _gelotopœi_ of the Greeks, and
the _mimi_ and _moriones_ of the Romans, shaved their heads; but the
court fools perhaps adopted this fashion as a satire upon the clergy
and monks. Some writers professed to doubt whether the fools borrowed
from the monks, or the monks from the fools; and Cornelius Agrippa,
in his treatise on the Vanity of Sciences, remarks that the monks had
their heads "all shaven like fools" (_raso toto capite ut fatui_).
The cowl, also, was perhaps adopted in derision of the monks, but
it was distinguished by the addition of a pair of asses' ears, or by
a cock's head and comb, which formed its termination above, or by
both. The court fool was also furnished with a staff or club, which
became eventually his bauble. The bells were another necessary article
in the equipment of a court fool, perhaps also intended as a satire
on the custom of wearing small bells in the dress, which prevailed
largely during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, especially among
people who were fond of childish ostentation. The fool wore also a
party-coloured, or motley, garment, probably with the same aim--that of
satirising one of the ridiculous fashions of the fourteenth century.
[Illustration: _No. 127a. Court Fools._]
It is in the fifteenth century that we first meet with the fool in
full costume in the illuminations or manuscripts, and towards the end
of the century this costume appears continually in engravings. It is
also met with at this time among the sculptures of buildings and the
carvings of wood-work. The two very interesting examples given in our
cut No. 127a are taken from carvings of the fifteenth century, in the
church of St. Levan, in Cornwall, near the Land's End. They represent
the court fool in two varieties of costume; in the first, the fool's
cowl, or cap, ends in the cock's head; in the other, it is fitted with
asses' ears. There are variations also in other parts of the dress;
for the second only has bells to his sleeves, and the first carries
a singularly formed staff, which may perhaps be intended for a strap
or belt, with a buckle at the end; while the other has a ladle in
his hand. As one possesses a beard, and presents marks of age in his
countenance, while the other is beardless and youthful, we may consider
the pair as an old fool and a young fool.
[Illustration: _No. 128. A Fool and a Grimace-maker._]
The Cornish churches are rather celebrated for their early carved
wood-work, chiefly of the fifteenth century, of which two examples
are given in our cut, No. 128, taken from bench pannels in the church
of St. Mullion, on the Cornish coast, a little to the north of the
Lizard Point. The first has bells hanging to the sleeves, and is no
doubt intended to represent folly in some form; the other appears to be
intended for the head of a woman making grimaces.[69]
[69] For the drawings of these interesting carvings from the Cornish
churches, I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. J. T. Blight, the
author of an extremely pleasing and useful guide to the beauties
of a well-known district of Cornwall, entitled "A Week at the
Land's End."
The fool had long been a character among the people before he became a
court fool, for Folly--or, as she was then called, "Mother Folly"--was
one of the favourite objects of popular worship in the middle ages,
and, where that worship sprang up spontaneously among the people,
it grew with more energy, and presented more hearty joyousness and
bolder satire than under the patronage of the great. Our forefathers
in those times were accustomed to form themselves into associations or
societies of a mirthful character, parodies of those of a more serious
description, especially ecclesiastical, and elected as their officers
mock popes, cardinals, archbishops and bishops, kings, &c. They held
periodical festivals, riotous and licentious carnivals, which were
admitted into the churches, and even taken under the especial patronage
of the clergy, under such titles as "the feast of fools," "the feast of
the ass," "the feast of the innocents," and the like. There was hardly
a Continental town of any account which had not its "company of fools,"
with its mock ordinances and mock ceremonies. In our own island we
had our abbots of misrule and of unreason. At their public festivals
satirical songs were sung and satirical masks and dresses were worn;
and in many of them, especially at a later date, brief satirical dramas
were acted. These satires assumed much of the functions of modern
caricature; the caricature of the pictorial representations, which were
mostly permanent monuments and destined for future generations, was
naturally general in its character, but in the representations of which
I am speaking, which were temporary, and designed to excite the mirth
of the moment, it became personal, and, often, even political, and it
was constantly directed against the ecclesiastical order. The scandal
of the day furnished it with abundant materials. A fragment of one of
their songs of an early date, sung at one of these "feasts" at Rouen,
has been preserved, and contains the following lines, written in Latin
and French:--
_De asino bono nostro,
Meliori et optimo,
Debemus_ faire fête.
En revenant _de Gravinaria_,
Un gros chardon _reperit in via_,
Il lui coupa la tête.
_Vir monachus in mense Julio
Egressus est e monasterio_,
C'est dom de la Bucaille;
_Egressus est sine licentia_,
Pour aller voir dona Venissia,
Et faire la ripaille.
TRANSLATION.
_For our good ass,
The better and the best,
We ought to rejoice.
In returning from Gravinière,
A great thistle he found in the way,
He cut off its head._
_A monk in the month of July
Went out of his monastery,
It is dom de la Bucaille;
He went out without license,
To pay a visit to the dame de Venisse,
And make jovial cheer._
It appears that De la Bucaille was the prior of the abbey of St.
Taurin, at Rouen, and that the dame de Venisse was prioress of St.
Saviour, and these lines, no doubt, commemorate some great scandal of
the day relating to the private relations between these two individuals.
These mock religious ceremonies are supposed to have been derived from
the Roman Saturnalia; they were evidently of great antiquity in the
mediæval church, and were most prevalent in France and Italy. Under the
name of "the feast of the sub-deacons" they are forbidden by the acts
of the council of Toledo, in 633; at a later period, the French punned
on the word _sous-diacres_, and called them _Saouls-diacres_ (Drunken
Deacons), words which had nearly the same sound. The "feast of the
ass" is said to be traced back in France as far as the ninth century.
It was celebrated in most of the great towns in that country, such as
Rouen, Sens, Douai, &c., and the service for the occasion is actually
preserved in some of the old church books. From this it appears that
the ass was led in procession to a place in the middle of the church,
which had been decked out to receive it, and that the procession was
led by two clerks, who sung a Latin song in praise of the animal. This
song commences by telling us how "the ass came from the east, handsome
and very strong, and most fit for carrying burthens":--
_Orientis partibus
Adventavit asinus,
Pulcher et fortissimus,
Sarcinis aptissimus._
The refrain or burthen of the song is in French, and exhorts the animal
to join in the uproar--"Eh! sir ass, chant now, fair mouth, bray, you
shall have hay enough, and oats in abundance:"--
_Hez, sire asnes, car chantez,
Belle bouche, rechignez,
Vous aurez du foin assez,
Et de l'avoine à plantez._
In this tone the chant continues through nine similar stanzas,
describing the mode of life and food of the ass. When the procession
reached the altar, the priest began a service in prose. Beleth, one
of the celebrated doctors of the university of Paris, who flourished
in 1182, speaks of the "feast of fools" as in existence in his time;
and the acts of the council of Paris, held in 1212, forbid the
presence of archbishops and bishops, and more especially of monks and
nuns, at the feasts of fools, "in which a staff was carried."[70] We
know the proceedings of this latter festival rather minutely from
the accounts given in the ecclesiastical censures. It was in the
cathedral churches that they elected the archbishop or bishop of
fools, whose election was confirmed, and he was consecrated, with a
multitude of buffooneries. He then entered upon his pontifical duties
wearing the mitre and carrying the crosier before the people, on whom
he bestowed his solemn benediction. In the exempt churches, or those
which depended immediately upon the Holy See, they elected a pope of
fools (_unum papam fatuorum_), who wore similarly the ensigns of the
papacy. These dignitaries were assisted by an equally burlesque and
licentious clergy, who uttered and performed a mixture of follies and
impieties during the church service of the day, which they attended in
disguises and masquerade dresses. Some wore masks, or had their faces
painted, and others were dressed in women's clothing, or in ridiculous
costumes. On entering the choir, they danced and sang licentious songs.
The deacons and sub-deacons ate black puddings and sausages on the
altar while the priest was celebrating; others played at cards or dice
under his eyes; and others threw bits of old leather into the censer
in order to raise a disagreeable smell. After the mass was ended, the
people broke out into all sorts of riotous behaviour in the church,
leaping, dancing, and exhibiting themselves in indecent postures, and
some went as far as to strip themselves naked, and in this condition
they were drawn through the streets with tubs full of ordure and filth,
which they threw about at the mob. Every now and then they halted,
when they exhibited immodest postures and actions, accompanied with
songs and speeches of the same character. Many of the laity took part
in the procession, dressed as monks and nuns. These disorders seem to
have been carried to their greatest degree of extravagance during the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.[71]
[70] "A festis follorum ubi baculus accipitur omnino abstineatur....
Idem fortius monachis et monialibus prohibemus."
[71] On the subject of all these burlesques and popular feasts and
ceremonies, the reader may consult Flögel's "Geschichte des
Grotesk-Komischen," of which a new and enlarged edition has
recently been given by Dr. Friedrich W. Ebeling, 8vo., Leipzig,
1862. Much interesting information on the subject was collected
by Du Tilliot, in his "Memoires pour servir à l'Histoire de la
Fête des Fous," 8vo., Lausanne, 1751. See also Rigollot, in the
work quoted above, and a popular article on the same subject will
be found in my "Archæological Album."
Towards the fifteenth century, lay societies, having apparently
no connection with the clergy or the church, but of just the same
burlesque character, arose in France. One of the earliest of these was
formed by the clerks of the Bazoche, or lawyers' clerks of the Palais
de Justice in Paris, whose president was a sort of king of misrule. The
other principal society of this kind in Paris took the rather mirthful
name of _Enfans sans Souci_ (Careless Boys); it consisted of young men
of education, who gave to their president or chieftain the title of
_Prince des Sots_ (the Prince of Fools). Both these societies composed
and performed farces, and other small dramatic pieces. These farces
were satires on contemporary society, and appear to have been often
very personal.
[Illustration: _No. 129. Money of the Archbishop of the Innocents._]
[Illustration: _No. 130. Money of the Pope of Fools._]
Almost the only monuments of the older of these societies consist of
coins, or tokens, struck in lead, and sometimes commemorating the
names of their mock dignitaries. A considerable number of these have
been found in France, and an account of them, with engravings, was
published by Dr. Rigollot some years ago.[72] Our cut No. 129 will
serve as an example. It represents a leaden token of the Archbishop of
the Innocents of the parish of St. Firmin, at Amiens, and is curious
as bearing a date. On one side the archbishop of the Innocents is
represented in the act of giving his blessing to his flock, surrounded
by the inscription, MONETA · ARCHIEPI · SCTI · FIRMINI. On the other
side we have the name of the individual who that year held the office
of archbishop, NICOLAVS · GAVDRAM · ARCHIEPVS · 1520, surrounding a
group consisting of two men, one of whom is dressed as a fool, holding
between them a bird, which has somewhat the appearance of a magpie.
Our cut No. 130 is still more curious; it is a token of the _pope_ of
fools. On one side appears the pope with his tiara and double cross,
and a fool in full costume, who approaches his bauble to the pontifical
cross. It is certainly a bitter caricature on the papacy, whether that
were the intention or not. Two persons behind, dressed apparently in
scholastic costume, seem to be merely spectators. The inscription is,
MONETA · NOVA · ADRIANI · STVLTORV [M]· PAPE (the last E being in the
field of the piece), "new money of Adrian, the pope of fools." The
inscription on the other side of the token is one frequently repeated
on these leaden medals, STVLTORV [M] · INFINITVS · EST · NVMERVS, "the
number of fools is infinite." In the field we see Mother Folly holding
up her bauble, and before her a grotesque figure in a cardinal's hat,
apparently kneeling to her. It is rather surprising that we find so
few allusions to these burlesque societies in the various classes
of pictorial records from which the subject of these chapters has
been illustrated; but we have evidence that they were not altogether
overlooked. Until the latter end of the last century, the misereres of
the church of St. Spire, at Corbeil, near Paris, were remarkable for
the singular carvings with which they were decorated, and which have
since been destroyed, but fortunately they were engraved by Millin.
One of them, copied in our cut No. 131, evidently represents the bishop
of fools conferring his blessing; the fool's bauble occupies the place
of the pastoral staff.
[72] "Monnaies inconnues des Evêques des Innocens, des Fous," &c.,
Paris, 1837.
[Illustration: _No. 131. The Bishop of Fools._]