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      Anecdotes Of Court Fools. The History Of...

      £ n the East , court fools were an ancient institution ; probably they originated in that quarter of the world . It was Bahalul who wore the cap and bells for Harouu Alraschid , and who , when the caliph made him governor of all the bears , wolves , foxes , apes , and asses in the realm , replied , " It is too much for me ; I am not ambitious enough to desire to rule all your highness ' s subjects . " He was in his way the antetype of Chicot , the hero in two of the Dumas novels . But he was eclipsed by Kbn Oaz , who was ordered by Haroun to make some excuse which should be more offensive than the crime it was to extenuate , ' and who obeyed in that peculiar manner which moved all Asia and many generations to laughter . We will leave the story , however , in Dr . Doran ' s chapter , only adding that he is right in asserting the ¦ claims of the East to be regarded as the birthplace of almost every dee p ly ludicrous incident recorded in the literature of the West . . First , dark Indian faces smiled at them ; then they brought many beams into Greek and Roman eyes , next they reappeared under a hundred various disguises in Europe , and now whatever has escaped the dull compilers of jocular manuals ialls into the hand of the farce writer . But the oiKcial fool was also known an the New World , at the court of Montezuma , who rejoiced in his collection of human monsters , albinos , cripples , dwarfs , simpletons , and " other freaks and caprices of nature ; ' but this potentate was no rival to him of Monomotapa , the peer of the Emperor Gallienus , who never stirred abroad with less than five hundred fools in his train . Shakspeare presented many examples of the gentry who , like the dogs in the court kennel , were governed by whips and rods , instruments with which , . as we have seen , Catherine de Medici sometimes disgraced the lady jesters of her time . They were not allowed , either in the King ' s palace or in oreat households , to pass a certain limit in the licence of their jokes or longs . William the Conqueror kept a famous fool from Bayeux , and . another surnamed Berdic who amassed prodigious opulence , and became ¦* the lord of three towns and five carucates of land . ' Rufus was a fool * o his own professional jester ; Matilda , wife of Henry I ., loved a melo--dious joculator . Longchamp , the Picard prelate , chancellor of William the First , who was so proud that he sealed public acts with his own signet seal , instead of the great seal of England , had a retinue of fools who were also flatterers . The sort of joking affected by King John was illustrated when he caused Geoffrey , Archdeacon of Norwich , to be clothed in a ponderous sacerdotal cope of lead and left to die of famine ; but Piculph , his jester , was a merry fellow , and received a landed estate and something like a title of nobility . Master Henry , ornament of the court of Henry III-, was declared in a Cornish satire to have ' the legs of a goat , the thighs of a sparrow , the sides of a boar , a hare ' s mouth , a dog ' s nose , the 4 eeth and cheeks of a mule , a calf ' s face , a bull ' s head , and the complexion of a Moor . " Fools prospered at all times at the court of France , the earliest mentioned by Flogel being Jean , attached to the train of Charles 4 he Simple : — . This good fellow ' s influence was so great , that Charles once remarked to him , lie thought they had better change places . As Jean did not look well pleased at the proposal , Charles asked him if he were not content at the idea of being a king . "Oh , content enough , " was the reply ; " but I should be exceeding ^' ashamed at iiaving such a fool . " It was this fool who once tried his master ' s nerve , by rushing into his room one morning , with the exclamation , " Oh , Sire , such news . ' four thousand men have risen in the city . " " What ! " cried the startled King ; " with what Intention have they risen ? " " Well , " said Jean , placing his finger on his nose , " probably with the intention of lying down again at bedtime . " The " King of the Ribalds " was the terror of the salaried fool , for he « was Rod in waiting , and sometimes gratified the proud ladies of the court by flogging impertinent pages . The pages themselves , however , were permitted great licence , as when they tortured poor Caillette : — The court pages , say the biographers , could do as they pleased with Caillette , and on one occasion they nailed him by the ear to a beam . The poor fool thought he was condemned to remain there for life . On being discovered by some police authority , he was questioned ; but he only replied that he did not know who had fixed him there . The pages were confronted with him , but each declared in turn , " 1 had nothing to do with it , " and each time , Caillette added , ' ? And I had nothing to do with it either . " The alleged offence was , that the fool had cut off a page ' s aiguillettes And attached them to his person in the guise of a tail . Another Caillette was 'jester against his will , ' of noble mien , tall , graceful , and a man of genius : — . The Count de Saint-Vallier was sentenced to death for alleged complicity in the ( treason of the Constable against his country . Caillette exerted himself with unexampled vigour to procure the release of his old patron , for he had obtained from Diane a promise that she would reward him for succeeding iu the rescue of her father irom a terrible death , by kissing him in the presence of the whole court of France . It was into that presence that he proudly brought , at last , the pardon which hia prayers , and still more hia ingenuity , had wrested from the King ; but at that moment poison was slaying him , and it was only as the dying fool drew his last breath that Diane stooped to kisa him , and thereby gave sweetness to bitter doath . He died in a condition of ecstasy . The celebrated Triboulet was a monster . Brusquet was a master of indecency , and the brutality of his jests was the delight of the Hotel dc Cluny , when the Guises revelled there ; of the Russian court fools a majority were idiots in the service of savages . Concerning the German and Spanish fools , Dr . Dorun has chapters of the most admirable gossip , From Italy he brings an anecdote of Alboin ' n fool : — This fool ' s name , or nickname , waa Fagotto . He was short , fat , and bald , and Jue was the challenger of Bertoldo . When the King acceded to his request , and ordered the duel of tha two fools to take place , ho remarked to Fagotto , "Now , pro-^ ceed . ^ , hut . takO-ho < id-nPt-tO-y-0 » an > hl 9 Jjofteyonlfo . wUq want . out t 0 flb f ! l r i ... ^ "JLH" . ! Jbuune shorn . " Fagotto ropliod with a pompous boast , and then turning on hia rival , assailed him With a species of arnenltfos like thoao that used to puss between carnival foola on the Paris Boulevards , and before which every decent person fled . From thia conteat Bortoldo issued triumphant i but the King again taxed his wit by ordering him to demonstrate in what way , as he had averted , the daylight waa whiter than milk , * nd stimulated him to success by promising him the baatinado if ho failed . Bestoldo is said to havo proved hia uaaertlou by a , simple process . Having access « yeeywh « ro ho entered the King ' s bedchamber ub night , and closing all the blinds , placed a poll of milk in the middle of the room . Aiboin , rising iu the dark ,

      overthrew the'pail , and then calling lustily for daylight , Bertoldo let the same in upon him , with the remark , that if the milk had been clearer than daylight , ho would have seen the former without the aid of the latter . Whereupon Aiboin rubbed his . shins , shook his head , and supposed his philosophy was wrong . . - Quotations mig ht be multiplied from this attractive and anecdotical volume ; but that readers will send for Dr . Doran ' s last work is so ruuch a matter of course that it only remains for us to pronounce the History of Court Fools the best of his productions .

      « 6 The Leader, [No. 409, January 23,185...

      « THE LEADER , [ No . 409 , January 23 , 1858 .

      Publications And Republications. The Sev...

      PUBLICATIONS AND REPUBLICATIONS . The seventh volume of Mr . Peter Cunningham ' s edition of The fetters . of Horace Walpole has this week been published by Mr . Bentley . The portraits are those of Madame Du Defland , the Duchess de Choiseul , the Duchess of Kingston , the Young Pretender , and the Duchess of Albany . Several of the letters , hitherto inedited , are very characteristic of Walpole ' s epistolary style . In the Illustrated Library , Mr . Bolm has published The Odysse of Homer , translated by Alexander Pope , to which are added the Battle of the Froys and Mice , by Parnell , and the Hymns , by Chapman and others , with the entire series of Flax man ' s wonderful and exquisite designs . The Rev . J . S . Watson contributes to this remarkable volume a . number of ' Observations and Brief Notes . ' Flaxman was the one artist who fittingly illustrated the poems of Homer . To the Scientific Library two additions have been made . The one is the second volume of Dr . Carpenter ' s Zoology , revised by Mr . Dallas , with a copious index ; the other a first volume of An Index of Dales , comprehending the principal events in the history of the world to the present period , by Mr . J . Willoughby Rosse . It serves as an index to the enlarged edition of Blair ' s chronological tables , and is likely to be of use to the historical student , as well as for general reference . Mr . Bohn has . also published a seventh edition of Sturm ' s well-known Morning Communions with God ; or , Devotional Meditations for every Day in . the Year , translated from the German by Mr . N . Johnstone . Mrs . Gore ' s clever novel , The Banker ' s Wife ; or , Court and City , which , in 1843 , was dedicated to Sir John Dean Paul , has been re-published under the author ' s revision , by Messrs . Knight and Son . Mrs . Gore makes no allusion to her late banker and trustee further than to justify herself for having cancelled the dedication . Mr . Hodgson sends us another of the Dumas series , Forty-five Guardsmen , in which Diana de Monsoreau , Chicot the Jester , and other of his marvellous characters reappear . A cheap edition of Mr . William Howitt ' s Boy ' s Adventures i ? i the Wilds of Australia , illustrated by Harvey , has been published by Messrs . Arthur Hall and Co ., and claims attention before school-days recommence . The Rev . James White will add to his wide popularity by Robert Bums and Sir Walter Scott , a volume of biography just published by Mr . Routledge . The ' lives' appear to have been originally constructed as lectures , and are , in style and matter , all that could be desired . The Playground ; or , the Boys' Book of Games , by Mr . George Forrest , also published by Mr . Routledge , is a volume for scholars out of school-time , and will enable them to make the most of their holidays . Captain Clayton ' s ' Ubique ; ' or , English Country Quarters and Eastern Bivouac , published by Mr . Skeet , may here be mentioned as a brisk and florid narrative of every-day incidents in a soldier ' s life . Captain Claj ' ton might have selected a more attractive and intelligible title for his volume . In The Heirs of the Homestead , by the author of ' Orphan Upton , ' published by Messrs . Heaton and Pewtress—two distinct firms—will be found a . well-drawn picture of life in the worsted districts of Yorkshire twenty years ago . There is reality in every touch , and this confers upon the story a very marked character . Christian Errors Infidel Arguments , published by Messrs . Hamilton , Adams , and Co ., is a volume of which it suffices to mention the title . The author distributes his discourse into seven dialogues , ' suggested by the Burnett Treatises , the Evangelical Alliance Prize Essay , and other Apologetics / Professor Miller has written for the Scottish Temperance League a little volume entitled Alcohol , its Place and Power . It is directed against the use of potent liquors . Mr . W . Adam , well known as the author of' The Gem of the Peak , ' published with Messrs . J . and C . JVlozley an excellent little manual , First Lessons in Geology , with a special article on the toadstones of Derbyshire , and a glossary , explanatory of geological terms and their derivations , aoeompanred by sections and a general diagram of the strata .

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      Clfe Slrte-*

      V- The Festival Performances At Her Maje...

      v- THE FESTIVAL PERFORMANCES AT HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE —MR . KEAN AND THE COURT—A NEW DRAMA AT THE ADELPHI . We who take more interest in the notes of Picoolomini than in tho nominations of Palmbrhton—who look on unmoved at the rocking of thrones and tho crashing of dynasties , but trcmblo for tho success of our favourite in his or * irc 7 "fir ¥ t" ^ sTayiJfirifo \ v ^« r — - groat ufltiirs of life ( and we arc by no means u small or uuinlluenlial body ) , have had great excitement during the post week . All persona mixing in theatrical oirclos must have heard that tho mannor in whioh the so-called Fostival Performances havo boon got up lias created a coolness botwotm tho Court and Mr . Cjjaiiles Kjsan , the heretofore favourite Master of tho Revels . This coolness has been ascribed to many oausos , and longwinded , stories have boou manufactured by gobomouo / tes and circulated

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 23, 1858, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23011858/page/18/