Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-02-01
Medieval and Modern Humorists.

The jester is the legitimate middle
age representative of the modern pa
per humorist-of the 'funny man" of
the Detroit Free Press, Norristown
Herald and other journals which make
specially of original humor. For
centuries the fool, so-called, had q rec
ognized place in every royal and noble
household. "Fool" was his official
title, but the cap and the bells often
covered more brains than the crown of
the monarch or the inter of the pre-
late. In an age when freedom of dis
cussion or remonstrance was suppressed
with an iron hand, vailed by no velvet
glove, the jester was the one privileged
Characteristic chartered libertine.
whose tongue was free to wag against
loyalty itself with impunity. The
Jokes of non-professional testers, how
ever, sometimes cost them dear, as in
the case of that unfortunate citizen of
London, put to death by Edward ~.
for saying he would mako his son heir
to the crown, in facetious allus:on to
the sign which distinguished his place
OF business. "There is no SANDER in
an allowed fool" says Viola, in
Twelfth Night" and the brotherhood
generally availed themselves of their
privilege to the full. We may we'll
suppose that monarchs and mobiles
found insufferable the dull decorum
and simulated reverence, never varied
by a candid criticism or an unpalatable
truth, and tolerated the testers liber-
ties as q poor substitute for the free
play of opinion which we now enjoy.
But the dignity of rank must be pre-
served, so the term fool was bestowed
on the class as sort of legal fiction,
implying that their immunity was due
to disordered intellect. When free
dom ofsspeech became general the fool
disappeared. An epigram ON the sub
ject says:
"Why, pray, Of late do Europes kings
No lester to their courts admit
They've grown such stately solemn things
To bear joke they think notfit
But though each court q jester lacks
To laugh at monarchs in their face,
All mankind do behind their backs
Sapply the honest TESTERS place."
There is mention of court fool in
England during the reign of Edmund
Ironside, early in the eleventh century
while the last domestic fool retained in
an English family died as recently as
1746.
1t is difficult to select specimens oil
the recorded wit of the testers. Many
of their Jokes were of q coarse, practi
cal kind, and others, however pointed
they may have seemed at the time by
reason of contemporary or local as.
sociations, fall very fiat on modern
ears. Some of the best, moreover,
are still in circulation, reappearine
from time to time with incidental varia.
lions as original American humor
Brusquet, a French gester of the 10th
century, when party of his country.
men were debating as to the general
most likely to take Calais, named Ger.
tain bride taking Judge, saying: "Why
not send him? He can take anything. u
Marot, another Frenchman of the same
period, was threatened with the ven.
geance of bishop whom he had
satirized. II am in no anxiety" said
he, 81 will easily escape him. I will
go and sit in his library" Here is an
epigram by John Haywood, jester tc
Henry VII:
where am I least, husband ?" Quoth he
''In the waist.
Which cometh of this thou art vengeable
straight-laced."
"Where am biggest, wife?' I'm the waist
too" quoth she.
For all is waste in you, so far as I can see p
These jokes modified and modern
lied may be recognized as having been
in circulation within the last year OF
so in the humorous columns of the
press. A good joke is immortal. From
Philip THompson's Lecture on journal
istic AatetyDes."