Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1888-11-07
COURT TESTERS.
The Evolution of the Merry Kings
Fool.

People who read medieval romances
says the New Orleans PicGyune, find
that the court fool or professional
| jester was not only an established in
stItution, but also an important per-
sonage- When they encounter him in
| the history of those times they realize
| that he was real character, often tax
| ing important parts in prominent pol
itical and social events, and it not un-
| frequently appears that so far from
being fool he was the only sane and
| sensible person IN many an assemblage
OF people of rank and consequence. 1t
was often the case that the King IS
fool was the only person at court who
| dared to speak the truth among the
hordes OF flatterers and sycophants and
| parasites that surrounded the monarch
and infested the precincts of royalty
1t was often the court jester who alone
ventured to criticize the follies and de-
nounce the vices of those who occupied d
the highest places of the government
and fattened on the weal.h h wrung from
an oppressed people.
The court jester dates from a period
so early that ii is difficult TO trace his
| beginnings. He was in use in China,
where the art of making him a de-
formed monster existed. IN order to
make his wit more pungent and his
satires more scathing it was thought
necessary to have them uttered by a
dwarf or a hunchback. The fool
whose business It was TO expose and
ridicule the fOllies OF alleged wise men,
being peculiar in mind and morals
ought to be twisted and deformed III
body. The Greeks and Romans I'M
taI l,a OF, Ia
SLAMS but Greece and Rome possessed
also inimitable satIrists and masters of
sarcasm like Sophocles and Juvensl,
who did not hesitate TO scourge the
follies and crimes of the highest as
well as the lowest.
in the middle ages the fashion OF
maintaining testers was introduced into
Europe from the East, and it was
maintained for a long period. Among
the most noted of these professional
fools were TnOOulet, the celebrated
jester of Francis l., of France, and
| Chicot, who was more distinguished
than his royal master Henry I'LL
Other French foois of note were Brus-
qnet, Caiiette, SiAolet and MathuTine,
who by the way, was woman. An
gely, who appeared in the reign Of
Louis Kill, was tine last of the line,
In Germany, Pfaff CappadoX, who
adorned the court of Rudolph of Haps.
burg: Cunz Won ROsen, the jester of
MaXimilian I. Jodel der Narr, at the
court of Ferdinand IL, and Klaus
Narr, the fool of the Eiector Frederick
the Wise, were most noted examples.
In England, Edmond Ironsides had a
jester known as Hitard or Hithard.
VIII Somers was professional hum
orIst to Henry VIII, while Mary,
Queen of Scots maintained John Hey
wood In like capacity, Charles !.
was the last of English kings who kept
a fool. One OF his. Archibald Arm
graced and banlshed for his violent sa-
tires on Laud. Archbishop CT Canter-
bury. lie was succeeded by Muckle
John, so called because of his small
size. Long after testers had disappear
ed from the rest of Europe they were
still in favor IN Russia. where Peter the
Great kept twelve, and the Empress
Anna, who had nun, maintained
large number,
The decline and disappearance of the
court fool was undoubtedly due to the
rise of the art OF printing. The court
| fool had only select and limited audi
ence for his sarcasms and satires. The
people at large. Nothing so pleasing
| TO a great mass OF mankind as 10 hear
others sharply criticised y touch of
slander even is not TO be objected TO II
| it be spicy. The art of printing placed
| these privileges within the reach of all,
| and as a consequence the professional
fool took TO writing books. He was
| aUle to criticise without being required
| 10 flatter and fawn on his patron and
| protector. and lie thus became a
| greater power than ever. Probably no
| satirist ever exerted a greater influence
! in his day than did the anonymous au-
| thor of the Letters of Junus;" while
others who wrote over their own names
| have also been distinguished. Rabelai5,
Swift, Voltaire, and others whose
names would make an illustrious list,
could be mentioned. To-day however,
the writer has been able to bring to
his aid the pencil of the artist, and the
J humorous satiTical illustrated publIca-
tions may be taken as the last and
most distinguished evolution OF the
court fool. Punch, the earliest oi
these interesting publications, has been
followed by similar products in the
chief nations of the civilized world
unit! 10 country is without them.