![]() ![]() With periodic imperial purges against actors for their outspokenness, many of them took to the road and fanned out across the empire in search of new audiences and greater freedom. If there was no formal professional jester in Rome, the comic actors fulfilled his functions, sometimes even bearing a striking physical resemblance to what is usually considered a medieval and Renaissance archetype. Just as there is now no clear distinction between the terms for "actor" and "jester" in Chinese, so the Latin terms could merge the two. Several Latin terms used in medieval references to jesters (including numerous church condemnations of them), such as scurrae, mimi, or histriones, originally referred either to amusing hangers-on or to the comic actors and entertainers of Rome. Perhaps the earliest antecedents of the European court jester were the comic actors of ancient Rome. Several of these terms are too frequently translated as "actor" regardless of where they appear on the etymological chain of evolution and even though they were used long before the advent of Chinese drama. All could include musical and other talents, chang suggesting music, ling, playing or fooling, and pai a humorous element to bring delight. but the you could not offer his remonstrances in earnest, he had to make use of jokes, songs and dance." The term is often combined with other characters giving differing shades to his jesterdom, an acting or a musical slant, for example: paiyou, youren, youling, changyou, lingren, linglun. In Chinese the jester element often has to be singled out according to context, although the key character you does seem to have referred specifically to jesters, originally meaning somebody who would use humor to mock and joke, who could speak without causing offense, and who also had the ability to sing or dance: "The you was also allowed a certain privilege, that is, his 'words were without offence'. The Chinese terms used for "jester" now seem vaguer than the European, most of them having a wider meaning of "actor" or "entertainer." In Chinese there is no direct translation of the English "jester," no single word that to the present-day Chinese conjures an image as vividly as "court jester," fou du roi, or Hofnarr would to a Westerner. The jester's quicksilver qualities are equally difficult to pin down, but nevertheless not beyond definition. He can be any of these, while the German word Narr is not so much a stem as the sturdy trunk of a tree efflorescent with fool vocabulary. The European words used to denote him can now seem as nebulous as they are numerous, reflecting the mercurial man behind them: fool, buffoon, clown, jongleur, jogleor, joculator, sot, stultor, scurra, fou, fol, truhan, mimus, histrio, morio. 179-117 B.C.), Rhapsody on the Shanglin Park Horace (65-8 B.C.), Satires, 2.3.158 Then come jesters, musicians and trained dwarfs,Īnd singing girls from the land of Ti-ti, (from Chapter 1: Facets of the Fool and Chapter 7: Stultorum Plena Sunt Omnia, or Fools Are Everywhere) Lee Siegel, author of Love in a Dead Language This is a fun book, bristling with pleasurable details." Undaunted by the vastness of her subject and its resources, she presents a dazzling and entertaining collection of quotes, anecdotes, epigraphs, jokes, and comic texts. "Sparkling with enthusiasm and wit, the text is sustained with Otto's love of her subject and informed by both her erudition and her very good sense of humor. In her richly detailed chapters (and an appendix listing 334 named fools in the historical record), Otto makes a vigorous case for the jester's ubiquityfrom the ancient Chinese court to the Elizabethan stage to the modern corporate suiteand for the consistency of his characteristics: attachment to a particular ruler physical or mental deformity (real or pretended) concern for the general welfare of the people and the freedom to alert isolated kings, emperors, sultans, even popes of their 'moral halitosis.'" " lively survey of the state-sponsored mischief maker and his irrepressible, life-giving spirit. ![]() Well worth a look by avid readers with an eye for an informative yet uncommon title." Through anecdotes, historical details, analyses, and commentary, Otto brilliantly delineates the court jester, and quotations and illustrations do much to enhance this eminently readable text. Otto's lively, well-researched text proves that there are centuries of other examples and that the jester has a rich tradition worldwide. "Mention a court jester, and one pictures a whimsical creature in a belled hat or, perhaps, the ill-fated character in King Lear. ![]()
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