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marginaliant's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this book, it was plainly and cleanly written and I learned a few things from it. I did get sick of hearing about what clothes were being ordered for Fools to wear in excruciating detail, but that's not exactly Southworth's fault. There's obviously a huge dearth of primary source material in this subject so you have to do what you have to do.
grubstlodger's review against another edition
3.0
Sometimes I get a bolt of lightning that reminds me that I want to know something about something-or-other and this time that something was the history of fools, jesters and various courtly entertainers. ‘Fools and Jesters in the English Court’ by John Southworth did a lovely job catching me up to speed.
Focussing principally on royal court fools and on the nitty-gritty details rather than the sociological impact, this was a clear and enjoyable run-through of fools from the Celtic kings to the mid-eighteenth century or so. It traces how earlier fools had a military function, could fight or send messages on a battlefield, how they were seen as touched by the divine and how these notions were watered down over time becoming figures of licensed misrule.
There are two main kinds of fool, the natural and the professional. The natural is someone eccentric, with some sort of mental delay or of an unusual look or physique. They were often not paid themselves, though they had all their expenses and clothing paid for and a full-time carer. Sometimes, when they had outlived their usefulness, they were put into a monastery as an old-people’s home. Professional fools were paid, they often developed musical or physical skills and they were also superb improvisors, coming up with japes and such on the spot. Though these fools were given freedoms to say things others may not, they did not have quite the lee-way of the natural fools to say what they wanted. Interestingly, people with dwarfism merged the two a little, as they had unusual physiques but ordinary mental functions - so they served as a sort of half-way house.
Minstrels, I learnt, was a term for any minor household servant. So a person could usually be in charge of kennels but forced to fool sometimes, or ordinarily a keeper of arms but sometimes called in to play music. There were people called waferers, their main job was to bake small wafers that rounded off a feast as a palate cleanser but they were also called to do a little after-dinner speaking.
I had most fun meeting the various characters on the way and learning anecdotes. There was a man called Tallifer, who inspired the Normans to charge during the battle of Hastings by a recitation of ‘The Song of Roland’ whilst juggling swords. It’s also possible that ‘The Song of Roland’ was composed by a dwarf called Oneian. There were interesting chapter on later fools who also dabbled in theatre and the relationship with Shakespeare, his writing and the people who played fools in his company. Henry VIII was very close to his fool Will Somer and Mary was close to hers, Jane. This went to such an extent that the two are featured in a Tudor family portrait. Also, Mary I seemed really nice in this telling, not a word often applied to her.
One of the most interesting story was a man from Oakham called Jeffery. He was a proportional dwarf who worked in the court of Henrietta Maria, Charles I’s wife. He obtained polish and when the civil war started became a cavalry officer, fighting in battles. He also won a duel, with pistols, on horseback. This caused him to be exiled where he was captured by Barbary Corsairs and sold into slavery for 5 years before escaping - it’s some story - I have a longer book about him on a shelf I plan to read at some point.
Oh - and in the eighteenth century, there was a fool and dancing master called Samuel Johnson who wrote a play called Hurlothrumbo, which was so bad it run for 30 performance (9 was considered pretty successful.) Johnson also performed in this play, much of the time on stilts.
Unfortunately, very few of the fool’s jokes translated very well, which made it seem they were all pretty weak comedians. Also unfortunately, the most consistent records of fools were the expenses they incurred in costuming, meaning that a lot of the book was taken up by descriptions of wardrobe budgets. This had a similar effect to the lamb-bone decorations in ‘The Hermit in the Garden’, I was a little tired of different names for cloth.
Overall ‘Fools and Jesters in the English Court’ was exactly the kind of book I wanted, telling me a little more than I wanted to know about something I knew nothing of before.
Focussing principally on royal court fools and on the nitty-gritty details rather than the sociological impact, this was a clear and enjoyable run-through of fools from the Celtic kings to the mid-eighteenth century or so. It traces how earlier fools had a military function, could fight or send messages on a battlefield, how they were seen as touched by the divine and how these notions were watered down over time becoming figures of licensed misrule.
There are two main kinds of fool, the natural and the professional. The natural is someone eccentric, with some sort of mental delay or of an unusual look or physique. They were often not paid themselves, though they had all their expenses and clothing paid for and a full-time carer. Sometimes, when they had outlived their usefulness, they were put into a monastery as an old-people’s home. Professional fools were paid, they often developed musical or physical skills and they were also superb improvisors, coming up with japes and such on the spot. Though these fools were given freedoms to say things others may not, they did not have quite the lee-way of the natural fools to say what they wanted. Interestingly, people with dwarfism merged the two a little, as they had unusual physiques but ordinary mental functions - so they served as a sort of half-way house.
Minstrels, I learnt, was a term for any minor household servant. So a person could usually be in charge of kennels but forced to fool sometimes, or ordinarily a keeper of arms but sometimes called in to play music. There were people called waferers, their main job was to bake small wafers that rounded off a feast as a palate cleanser but they were also called to do a little after-dinner speaking.
I had most fun meeting the various characters on the way and learning anecdotes. There was a man called Tallifer, who inspired the Normans to charge during the battle of Hastings by a recitation of ‘The Song of Roland’ whilst juggling swords. It’s also possible that ‘The Song of Roland’ was composed by a dwarf called Oneian. There were interesting chapter on later fools who also dabbled in theatre and the relationship with Shakespeare, his writing and the people who played fools in his company. Henry VIII was very close to his fool Will Somer and Mary was close to hers, Jane. This went to such an extent that the two are featured in a Tudor family portrait. Also, Mary I seemed really nice in this telling, not a word often applied to her.
One of the most interesting story was a man from Oakham called Jeffery. He was a proportional dwarf who worked in the court of Henrietta Maria, Charles I’s wife. He obtained polish and when the civil war started became a cavalry officer, fighting in battles. He also won a duel, with pistols, on horseback. This caused him to be exiled where he was captured by Barbary Corsairs and sold into slavery for 5 years before escaping - it’s some story - I have a longer book about him on a shelf I plan to read at some point.
Oh - and in the eighteenth century, there was a fool and dancing master called Samuel Johnson who wrote a play called Hurlothrumbo, which was so bad it run for 30 performance (9 was considered pretty successful.) Johnson also performed in this play, much of the time on stilts.
Unfortunately, very few of the fool’s jokes translated very well, which made it seem they were all pretty weak comedians. Also unfortunately, the most consistent records of fools were the expenses they incurred in costuming, meaning that a lot of the book was taken up by descriptions of wardrobe budgets. This had a similar effect to the lamb-bone decorations in ‘The Hermit in the Garden’, I was a little tired of different names for cloth.
Overall ‘Fools and Jesters in the English Court’ was exactly the kind of book I wanted, telling me a little more than I wanted to know about something I knew nothing of before.
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