Jesters sometimes helped expose corruption at court.
#Fools are everywhere the court jester around the world full
“Tell me,” he commanded, “how do I feel now?”īowing low, Full Streamer replied, “I respectfully accept Your Majesty’s royal pardon.” The emperor laughed and all was forgiven. How, he asked, could a slave know a ruler’s deepest feelings from his playing?
The emperor demanded an explanation for his tardiness and was amazed at the response. Only when a new tune began did he enter the royal presence. One afternoon, already running late after having been summoned, he loitered outside the hall to gauge Emperor Xuanzong’s anger from the tune he was playing. A Tang dynasty manuscript attributes Full Streamer Huang (Huang Fan Chu) with a particularly sharp musical ear. The story, credited to numerous jesters at various times, is believed to have originated in the Far East.Ī number of Chinese jesters were accomplished musicians. Allowed a reprieve if he could offer an apology more insulting than the deed, the jester managed to save his neck by replying that he’d mistaken the King for the Queen. Triboulet is said to have once slapped France’s Louis XII on the backside, an outrage to the royal person punishable by death. In several cases, execution was evaded – at the eleventh hour – by the same silver tongue that had led to the fix in the first place. There were instances when excessive zeal resulted in banishment, imprisonment, or worse. Speaking truth to power will always be a paradoxical privilege. But as comedians throughout time are well aware, knowing how far to push the envelope is an inexact science with shifting variables.
The expression wu guo chi – “fools of no offense” – is a Chinese nickname for jesters. To these ends, it was essential that they were able to make their responsibility-laden employers laugh. Court jesters also appear in paintings by Rubens, Vasari, Veronese, and Botticelli.īeyond that, they could voice disagreement (when others could not), use humor to highlight a monarch’s shortcomings, or simply opt for bluntness, a rare breath of fresh air for rulers constantly surrounded by unctuous, sycophantic courtiers. Lord Minimus, who was said to have been 18 inches tall and to have made his debut at court by popping out of a pie. Velasquez painted portraits of several of the 110 dwarves on King Philip IV of Spain’s payroll Van Dyck paired English queen Henrietta Maria (1609-1669) with her trusted dwarf, Sir Jeffrey Hudson, a.k.a. Perhaps the most familiar jester is Will Sommers, who served three successive British monarchs, most notably Henry VIII. “If you were a big shot and used to being able to scare the hell out of people, wouldn’t you have respect for some funny chap who wasn’t scared of you and didn’t mind saying what he thought you ought to hear even if you didn’t like it?” “I can assign no reason for these pieces of deformity,” wrote Lady Mary Montague, a well-traveled, 17 th century aristocrat, “but ‘tis the opinion all absolute princes have, that ’tis below them to converse with the rest of mankind and, not to be quite alone, they are forced to seek their companions amongst the refuse of human nature – these creatures being the only part of their court privileged to talk freely to them.”īeatrice Otto, author of Fools Are Everywhere: The Court Jester Around the World, takes a different view. He told the formidable Queen Elizabeth I “more of her faults than most of her chaplains.” And yet she adored him. Actor-fencing master-playwright Richard Tarlton had been a swineherd before being brought to the English court, where his “happy unhappy answers” made him a favorite. Jesters almost always hailed from the lower classes, which gave them a different perspective and often, a vital detachment. Some were keepers of secrets not safely committed to paper, others gatekeepers between a monarch and his supplicants, still others were trusted envoys. Many held positions of privilege and considerable influence, accompanying sovereigns on war campaigns, to treaty negotiations and weddings. Though they were often referred to as “royal fools” the jester’s role was far more complex than that of a prancing dwarf or hunchback (being physically “challenged,” though not all were, was considered a jester attribute) decked out in a silly cap and jangling bells. For centuries, jesters were a common sight in the courts of emperors, kings, sultans, dukes, caliphs, Tzars, the occasional Kaiser, Cardinal and Archbishop, various 19 th century nobles, and at least one Pope.
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