A Panoramic History of Fools and Jesters • Medieval Mimes, Jongleurs and Minstrels* Pueblo Indian Delight Makers and Cheyenne Contraries • Harlequins and Pierrots • Theatrical Buffoons and Zanies • Circus Tramps,Whitef aces,and Augustes JOHN H.TOWSEN $1 JOHN H.TOWSEN ILLUSTRATED WITH RARE PHOTOGRAPHS AND PRINTS Throughout the centuries, clowns have kept alive the vital tradition of comedy, providing laughter for a wide and varied audience that has always included both children and adults. Although, today, clowns are usually associated with the cir¬ cus, they have also played important roles in other kinds of entertainment, such as theater, music hall, rodeo, and folk dance and ritual. Recently, there has been a remarkable upsurge of interest in this ancient form of entertainment. Nearly 4,000 applicants compete each year to become one of the forty-five students at Clown College, run >ELEY by Ringling Bros, and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and more and more workshops in clowning are being offered each year in universities and community colleges. This new fascination with clowns is part of a growing interest in all popular forms of entertainment, including magic, juggling, and mime. Until now, no one has attempted a com¬ prehensive survey of the clown throughout history and throughout the world. In Clowns, John H. Towsen provides a lively and amusing account of clowns from their earliest appearances up to and including some of the best contemporary clowns. Each chapter focuses on one or two of the (Continued on bac1' (Blazons (Blazons *3ofin cJC. dbzDsen X \ ' dCazotfiorn <fiooEsr*3nc Publishers / new yokk V for my brother Randy CLOWNS Copyright © 1976 by John H. Towsen. Copyright under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. All in¬ quiries should be addressed to Hawthorn Books, Inc., 260 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016. This book was manufactured in the United States of America and pub¬ lished simultaneously in Canada by Prentice-Hall of Canada, Limited, 1870 Birchmount Road, Scarborough, Ontario. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 75-41793 ISBN: 0-8015-3962-5 123456789 10 731.3 Tlcbt A clown is a poet who is also an orangutan. Steve Linsner JL&y S . » Salients Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi 1 Fools, Natural and Artificial 3 2 The Clown on Stage 31 3 The Clown to the Ring 83 The American One-Ring Clown 105 Knockabouts and Cascadeurs 140 6 Stand-up Clowns 189 Vll 6 He Who Gets Slapped 206 a The Clown Entree 224 9 The Three-Ring Clown 256 10 Tramps—Sad and Sassy 282 11 Jester to His Majesty the People 306 12 The Clown-Mime 338 Notes 357 Glossary 371 Selected Bibliography 383 Index 389 Vlll Jl c fine zoic dg meats Writing a history book is such an enormous undertaking that the author soon finds himself enlisting the help of all available friends and relatives. This book was certainly no exception. It was a group effort all the way. I would like, first of all, to thank my par¬ ents for their much-needed encouragement over what has proved to be a long and very trying period. The same thanks are due Barry, Carolyn, Dorothy, and their entire families. Five good friends contributed a large amount of their valuable time to this project and their input can hardly be exaggerated: Hovey Burgess, whose help with all aspects of the research saved several months' time and considerably enriched the text; Judy Burgess, whose photographic skills and Russian translations are in evidence throughout the book; Diane L. Goodman, whose ed¬ iting, research, French translations, and knowledge of music proved invaluable; Brooks McNamara, whose many hours of editing are chiefly responsible for whatever clarity and polish the writing may have; and Fred Yockers, whose encouragement and suggestions over the past four years have helped make this book a reality. I would also like to thank my editors at Hawthorn, Elizabeth Backman, Ellane Hoose, Naomi Ornest, and Carol Paradis, who likewise spent many long hours on the manuscript, doing a fine IX Acknowledgments job under great pressure. The research could not have been com¬ pleted without the generous cooperation of Robert Sokan, of the Illinois State University Library, Normal, Illinois. Also very help¬ ful were Paul Meyers of the New York Library for the Performing Arts and Robert Parkinson of Circus World Museum, Baraboo, Wisconsin. No historian creates out of a vacuum, and so special gratitude must go to all who have written about clowns before me, but especially to the following authors: Allardyce Nicoll (Masks, Mimes and Miracles); Enid Welsford (The Fool: His Social and Literary History); Maurice Willson Disher (Clowns and Pantomimes); Tristan Remy (Les Clowns and Entrees Clownesques); and Raymond Tool^-Stott (Circus and Allied Arts: A World Bibliography). Dozens of others also made essential contributions: Doug Ash¬ ton, Michael Baird, Frank Bock, Louise Curtis, Marshall Dodge, Matt Dolkey, Rosalie Donatelli, Ken Feit, Mona Friedman, Ron Gantz, Henry Gee, Alan Geik, Paulette Haller, Lulu Hedgbeth, Walter and Uwe Hegend, Ted Hoffman, Michael Kirby, Stans Koizumi, Judy Landon, Paul Levine, Alfred Lewis, Fred and Beth Lown, Celia McCarthy, John McNaughton, Paulette Manzo, Carlo Mazzone-Clementi, Dick Merz, Vincent Monzo, Mark Needleman, Jody Norton, Edith Rice, Richard Schechner, Marty Schwartz, Noel Selegzi, Stephanie Silverman, Barry Sloate, Don¬ na Spatafora, Marc Stolzenberg, Jay Taikeff, Tad Tosky, Evelyn Vitz, Victor Wakefield, Mary Wise, Lorre Wyatt, and Jerry Yulsman. x introduction The University of Bologna is one of the world's oldest and most venerable institutions of higher learning. In the wall of its Ana¬ tomical Lecture Hall, just a few feet above the speaker's rostrum, there is a curious little door, not much larger than a man's head. Its function had to do with an old custom: when the professor found his students growing inattentive, the door would open and a clown would show his face, crack a few jokes to make the au¬ dience laugh, then disappear. No doubt clowns have been appearing and disappearing since time began, and their traditional shout of “Here we are again!" evokes the arrival of a whole world of clowns. This world is as di¬ versified as life itself, for the hero of our story is to be found in a surprising number of guises, from the class clown to the court fool; from the Pueblo Indian “delight maker" to the Cheyenne "contrary;" in the theater, the rodeo, and the circus. They are all clowns, yet the differences between them are fully as fascinating as the similarities. Perhaps there is no such animal as the clown. There are, instead, only clowns. Certainly, to allow a single image of the clown, positive or negative, to prevail would needlessly limit our enjoyment of a phenomenon as variegated as the patches on a Harlequin costume. Although in recent years Madison Avenue has attempted to transform one particular image of the clown into a profitable ad- xi Introduction vertising tool—a Ronald McDonald or a Bozo the Clown, for ex¬ ample—new clowns are continually creating their own images independent of the mass media. And while Federico Fellini has de¬ voted an entire film to the clown's supposed demise, a resurgence of interest in the art of clowning has become more and more evi¬ dent, and the tradition of the clown, in all of its fascinating manifestations, suddenly seems more vital than ever. Until now, however, no one has attempted a comprehensive survey of the clown throughout history and throughout the world: in “primi¬ tive'' cultures and technological societies, in one-ring and three- ring circuses, in theaters and on the streets. X Much of the previous writing on clowns consists either of pure nostalgia or of lyrical tributes to the clown's sparkling personal¬ ity. There is certainly nothing wrong with this, but unfortunately it fails to tell us very much about what the clowns actually did as performers. As a partial remedy, all twelve chapters of this book contain detailed descriptions and rare photographs of popular clown acts. If the bulk of the material is from the past 300 years, that is because more descriptions are available from this period than from earlier times. The book is, however, limited to live per¬ formance and consequently does not deal with film or television. The notes, glossary, and bibliography at the back of the book are there as a service to those readers who may want to explore a specific aspect of the subject in greater detail. They are not essen¬ tial to one's understanding of the text, and it is to be hoped that the reader will feel free to ignore them and simply read the book for pleasure. Likewise, the book makes no pretense of answering such ultimate questions as the philosophical significance of comedy or the psychology of laughter. Such theoretical matters are not necessarily without interest, but there is no reason why the reader, given all the facts, cannot devise his own interpretation if he feels the need for one. While no previous book has attempted the scope of the present work, it cannot be claimed that Clowns is by any means definitive. In fact, this clearly would be impossible. Rather, it is a survey of clowning, an optimistic attempt to trace the evolution of a phenomenon, and not just a series of clown biographies. But whatever its success, the printed word can never replace the ex- Xll Introduction perience of seeing a good clown perform. If, however, the reader is inspired to see more clowns, all kinds of clowns, in the circus, on the streets, in the theater, and in everyday life, this book will certainly have served its purpose. Xlll ■ ■ Qlozons * 9 1 cPoolsr Natural and dlrtificial Among the Hopi Indians of the American Southwest, an ancient ritual of holy dancers and merry clowns is still performed today. The Hopi way of life might seem very foreign to most of us, but the comic antics of its tribal clowns are remarkably familiar. The dance of the "kachinas" (gods of fertility) is held in the plaza formed by the pueblos of the Hopi village, and lasts a full day, if not two. Early in the afternoon of the first day, as the masked kachinas dance to musical accompaniment, the audience at this sacred ceremony is suddenly distracted by the noisy and somewhat supernatural appearance of several Chukuwimkya clowns on the rooftop of one of the buildings that line the plaza. The bodies of these clowns are smeared with mud from the sacred springs, while on their heads they wear improvised wigs made from stocking caps and rabbit fur. They accentuate their facial ex¬ pressions with a black inverted v over each eye and u-shaped black marks under the eyes and mouth. The clowns pretend to step off the edge of the roof, one foot suspended in midair, then retreat in mock fear, provoking uproarious laughter from the spectators below, who quickly lose interest in the dancers. The clowns lower a long plank to the ground and attempt to slide down it headfirst, and considerable comic horseplay follows in which they almost lose their balance 3 Clowns before finally tumbling to the ground. Parading around the plaza, the clowns suddenly feign great surprise at seeing the kachinas dancing, and immediately decide to join in. Showing little respect for the holiness of the occasion, they form their own line alongside the kachinas, dancing out of step and even chanting ir¬ reverent parodies of the kachina songs. Inevitably, their clumsy shuffling motions deteriorate into a shoving contest in which the clowns fall all over one another. The remainder of this long ceremony consists of dancing by the kachinas, interspersed with rest periods during which the clowns entertain until the kachinas are sufficiently refreshed to resume their dancing. When the kachinas return, the clowns cease their antics, step out of character, and participate in the sacred ritual of sprinkling the dancers with cornmeal. The clowns also pass out food to the audience and exchange gifts with them. At all other times, however, the clowns have free rein to do as they please. During one interlude, they might entertain with ribald songs. Vulgar skits likewise prove quite popular. During one session of dancing, another clown enters carrying a concealed wine bottle and plodding along like a feeble old man. Miming poor eyesight, he walks right up to the holy dancers and stares at them from a distance of a few inches, oblivious to all that is going on around him. Later, he and the other clowns pretend to get roar¬ ing drunk and engage in a raucous and comical conversation. Some of the intermissions will be used for games and competi¬ tions, with the clowns leading the children in barrel races and other fun-filled activities; if the clowns themselves compete, a riotous free-for-all is the likely result. As in the circus or rodeo, the role of clowns in the ceremony is to burlesque the other per¬ formers, at the same time insuring a smooth-flowing production.1 Similar examples of ceremonial clowning no doubt existed in prehistoric times, for the clown appears in one form or another in nearly all cultures. The clown was not invented by a single in¬ dividual, nor is he exclusively a product of Western civilization. Instead, he has been perpetually rediscovered by society because—as fool, jester, and trickster—he meets compelling human needs. Historically, the figure of the clown encompasses far more than the obvious funny costume and painted face; it 4 Fools, Natural and Artificial represents a vision of the world that both intellectual and so- called primitive cultures have valued highly, a sense of the comic meaningful to children and adults alike, and a dynamic form of acting based on startling technique and inspired improvisation. FOOLS AND FOLLY Throughout history, the idea of the clown has been linked with the fool. Fool is usually taken to mean someone lacking common sense, if not totally devoid of reason—and encompasses a broad range of characters, including both the village idiot and the harm¬ less eccentric. Today we might speak of the clinically diagnosed schizophrenic in the same sense. The fool's characteristic traits are very much those of “natural'' man. Lacking social graces and blissfully operating outside the laws of logic, he is often seen as a child or even an animal, but only rarely as a mature adult—his perceptions are too crudely structured, his use of language a parody of normal speech. Unimpressed with sacred ceremonies or the power of rulers, he is liable to be openly blasphemous and de¬ fiant; uninhibited in sexual matters, he often delights in obscene humor. The prevalence of the fool in most human cultures is paralleled by the universal myth of the trickster. Although associated most frequently with the legends of the North American Indian, the trickster figure plays an important role in the folklore of most societies. He is an instinctual creature who, like the real-life fool, is often compared to a child or an animal: psychologist Carl Jung, for example, describes Trickster's consciousness as "correspon¬ ding to a psyche that has hardly left the animal level."2 The mental aberration attributed to both the fool and the trickster is often mirrored in his appearance, his bizarre attire or grotesque deformity immediately setting him apart from his fellow man. Many fools, in fact, have been freaks of nature- dwarfs or hunchbacks, for example—of quite normal mentality.3 In many cultures the trickster spirit is incarnated in an animal- such as the sly fox of European folk tales or the cunning coyote- clown of the California Indians. 5 Clowns Society may ostracize those it considers to be fools, but it also has shown an abiding interest in them. On one level, this paradox reflects man's recognition of folly as an unavoidable part of his life. The stupidity we laugh at in the fool reflects our own poten¬ tial foolishness, the realization that we too may slip on the prover¬ bial banana peel. The clown's antics, although exaggerated, are not as removed from our own realm of experience as we might choose to believe. "If every fool wore a crown," goes an old pro¬ verb, "we should all be kings."4 On another level, the fool represents the free spirit, the un¬ conventional thinker whose example encourages others to view the world in new and extraordinary ways. Most cultures recognize, consciously or unconsciously, the value of the fool's perceptions. Often he is seen as an inspired madman or even as a spiritual prophet. In the trickster cycle of the Winnebago Indians, he evolves into a hero, a healer, and a bearer of culture, who eventually ascends to his rightful place in heaven. Likewise, many psychiatrists today argue that the psychotic's modes of perception represent a way of structuring reality that is not necessarily incor¬ rect, and that may in some ways prove quite illuminating. But if the fool's vision is to be of any use to society, it must be presented in a more palpable form. While the real fool, the village idiot, may merely be an object of pity, the performer who can pre¬ sent the fool's perceptions in a socially acceptable manner often proves quite popular—even if everything he stands for runs counter to prevailing beliefs. A formal distinction is therefore often made between "natural" and "artificial" fools. In the first category is the legitimate idiot, in the second an entertainer who plays the role of the fool. In many cultures, the artificial fool—the clown, the jester—is an individual selected by society to enact a very important role, and clowning thus becomes institutionalized, an integral part of the communitv life. CLOWN SOCIETIES Many communal cultures, especially those of the North American Indian, possess indigenous clown clans or societies. One an¬ thropologist, surveying 136 cultures throughout the world, found 6 A clown in the Dance of the Moors and Christians, a ritual drama performed in Papantla, Mexico, on the Catholic holy day of Corpus Christi. Courtesy of Frank Bock. Clowns that at least forty had ritual clowns.5 Some of the groups are devoted exclusively to clowning during public ceremonies, but many have other cultural functions as well. In many cases these clown societies come in pairs, each society representing a different type of clown. Sometimes there are separate male and female clown groups. Membership is likely to be hereditary, as with the Kwakiutl Fool Dancers of the Northwest coast, but performers may at times be drawn from outside the clan. The Hopi concept of burlesqueing the sacred while also sup¬ porting it is repeated in most North American Indian cultures. In the Navajo Night Chant, the clowns join directly in the masked dances, getting in the way of the hdly dancers and even trying to usurp the leader's function by giving signals to the other dancers before he can do so. These Navajo clowns also burlesque per¬ formances of magic, revealing the sleight-of-hand technique underlying the illusion. The clown of the Jemez Pueblos mocks the cornmeal offering by sprinkling the spectators with ashes and sand. Members of the Zuni Ne'wekwe clown society joke with the gods in Spanish and English—a practice strictly taboo to ordinary mortals—and even rig up a mock telephone to carry on an animated conversation with Zuni heaven. In all of these performances, the clown's role is officially sanc¬ tioned by the culture. The clown keeps the people in touch with everyday reality while fulfilling the need for a connection with the sacred. While ostensibly mocking the entire performance, he also supports and embellishes it. The clown's role is especially am¬ bivalent in the Easter ritual of the Southwest Yaqui Indians, a reenactment of the crucifixion that was undoubtedly introduced to the Yaqui by Spanish conquerors: the chapayeka clowns are cast as the villains, but each clown holds between his teeth a small cross, unseen behind his mask.6 The positive social role of the ceremonial clown is reflected in his other functions as well, including that of sergeant at arms dur¬ ing the dances. He may also announce the ceremony and, like the stagehands in a theater, help the sacred dancers solve any small problems that may arise. The clowns' role as social regulators is even more in evidence in the comic skits they perform. With their freedom to publicly ridicule whomever they please, the clowns 8 Fools, Natural and Artificial represent strong deterrents to antisocial behavior. Among the Tubatulabal of California, in fact, the clown's opinions are held in such high esteem that if he criticizes the chief, a new leader is like¬ ly to be selected. In the Hopi kachina dance described at the beginning of the chapter, the clown skits are very often satirical. The drunken scene with the old man, for example, is understood by Hopi au¬ diences as an attack on growing alcoholism within the communi¬ ty. Other activities contrary to the Hopi way of life are likewise ridiculed in public. The actual target of the clown's scorn is often a member of the audience—and it is usually perfectly clear to the spectators just who the individual is. This public chastisement may be quite harsh, yet it serves many of the same functions as do legal sanctions in our society. “The clowns can make the in¬ dividual comments about the people, and the people can get mad or not, whatever they want, it's up to them," explained a Hopi clown. “We simply come out and show the people what they are doing is wrong, and through the social pressure of having it done in public, we don't need the jails as the bahana [white man] does." The clown's satire is also frequently directed at elements outside the community. Poking fun at foreigners is certainly nothing new, but among “primitive" cultures threatened by attempts to "civilize" them, the burlesque of outsiders is more than mere xenophobia: it reflects a crucial need to resist the imposition of a foreign culture. Through comic ridicule, the clowns bolster the collective ego while discrediting the ways of the enemy. This is particularly true of the American Indian, who has seen his culture decimated since the arrival opeans on the American continent. Accordingly, the Indian clown's sharpest satirical thrusts are directed at the white man. His mannerisms and dress are caricatured, as are the personality traits the Indian clowns attribute to him: boorish behavior, gluttony and drunken¬ ness, and vicious exploitation. In recent years, with most Indian reservations open to the public, burlesques of American tourists—both middle-class and "hippie"—have become quite common. The impact of the ceremonial buffoon on his audience is derived in part from his portrayal of a grotesque yet comic spirit, in many 9 Rare nineteenth-century photograph by H. R. Voth of Koyemsi stick game in Hopi Mixed Kachina Dance. Courtesy of the Mennonite Library and Archives. Zuni Kachina doll, 215/s” in height, depicting mudhead clowns trying to climb to top of pole. It is a bad omen if clowns fail to reach food at top. Courtesy of the Denver Art Museum. r«eri R«d yarn lack Sketch of Pueblo Indian Koyemsi clown by Frank Bock. Sketch of Pueblo Indian Koshare clown by Frank Bock. Clowns ways just as supernatural as that of the shaman. His makeup and costume, of course, contribute to the creation of an otherworldly character, but equally important is the clown's behavior, which is variously described as ''contrary/' “backward," or "crazy." In¬ verted speech, illogical actions, animal mimicry, and difficult acrobatic stunts are common examples of this contrary behavior. Among the Plains Indians, there are many “contrary societies" whose clowns specialize in such actions.7 Among the Crow Indians, ludicrous antics on horseback and absurd dances are the contrary's stock-in-trade. The Thanigratha ("those who imitate madmen") contraries were known to ford a stream by stripping one leg and then hopping across on the clothed leg. The Real Dog contraries use several forms of eccentric speech, including howling like dogs. Members of the Cheyenne contrary society dress in rags, walk on their hands, run backwards, stand on their heads rather than sit on their rear ends, say the opposite of what they mean, and awkwardly dance and tumble about. Some Cheyenne contraries rode their horses while facing the wrong way and shot their arrows back over their shoulders, yet would revert to natural behavior in critical situa¬ tions and were said to make the very best warriors. The Win- digokan, clown-doctors of the Plains Ojibwa, also had an original Assiniboin Fool Dancers (1906), one of the few Northern Plains masked dances. The dancers wore canvas costumes and masks and exhibited contrary behavior during the two- to four-hour ceremony. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Collection. Fools, Natural and Artificial appr°ach to battle: meeting a large body of enemy /Sioux, they danced and danced until the Sioux took them for deities and, so the story goes, made offerings to them. The similarity between contrary behavior and circus clowning was noted by several Cheyenne Indians when they paid a rare visit to a show. “They told about a circus they saw," recounted Mari Sandoz in Cheyenne Autumn, “with elephants and the clowns who seemed to be like the Indian contraries, doing everything foolish and backward to lift the hearts of the people from the ground in unhappy times. Black Bear here among them did such things in the ceremonies." Much of the humor of the ceremonial clown tends to be therapeutic, and may even include curing functions—the comic exorcism of the demons believed to be the cause of disease.8 This varies from culture to culture: Hopi clowns do not cure, but the Ne'wekwe clowns of the neighboring Zuni Indians are a medicine society and are also said to possess the power of black magic. Any illness diagnosed as spirit intrusion is treated by the clowns of the Plains Ojibwa by dancing, singing, whistling, and the shak¬ ing of rattles. Members of the Iroquois False Face society wear basswood masks and perform violent theatrics to exorcise the demons of disease. The Canadian Dakotas believe the clown to be the most powerful of shamans, for he is said to derive his curing ability from the guardian spirit, “Clown." As many as eighteen sanni demons play a role in the dahaata pelapaliya comic demon play of Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), each one representing the major symptoms of an afflicted patient. "Deliriums," "cannot eat," "obscenity, confused behavior, timidi¬ ty," and "performs pranks and utters nonsense" are just a few of the major symptoms represented. Each scene in the drama consists of a comic portrayal of a set of symptoms, after which the demon tells the patient "it is done" and leaves the performance space, an indication that the disease he represents has left the patient. These performances, along with other shamanistic curing prac¬ tices, often have been classified as worthless "witch doctor" remedies. In recent years, however, more objective an¬ thropological and medical investigations have come to recognize the value of this kind of cure, at least in dealing with the psychosomatic dimension of disease. 13 Great Doctor Mask of Iroquois False Face Society. Made of basswood with horsehair trim, it represents Haduigona, the Great Humpbacked One. Courtesy of the Museum of the American Indian. below : Cayuga Indian wearing a false face mask and carrying a turtle- shell rattle (1907). Courtesy of the Museum of the American Indian. Fools, Natural and Artificial The clown's humor is also considered to be of therapeutic value when it deals explicitly with sexual and scatological matters. Phallic clowning, which Aristotle believed was essential to the development of early Greek comedy, has been especially popular among the Pueblo tribes of the American Southwest. Many of the comic skits performed by their clowns involve the wearing of false genitals and the simulation of intercourse. Although many early anthropologists were repulsed by this obscene clowning, it has proved surprisingly popular among cultures with puritanical stan¬ dards of morality, for they recognize it as a necessary safety valve. By laughing at taboo subjects, the community confronts the inhibition in an open yet vicarious manner.9 Although the function of clown societies can vary considerably, they all share one common trait—their value as entertainment, as "delight makers." The clown's image may at times approach that of a fearsome, supernatural figure, but he is also a laughable buf¬ foon, a fool whose message is delivered in an enjoyable form. The clowns' descent from the rooftops in the Hopi kachina dance, although seemingly symbolic, is explained by the clowns as sim¬ ply the most effective way of catching the audience's attention and Rare nineteenth-century photograph by H. R. Voth of Koyemsi clowns entering the plaza over the rooftops in traditional Hopi dance. The publication of Voth's photographs in the 1890s led the Hopi to restrict the taking of pictures during sacred ceremonies, and since then only sketches of the dances have appeared. Courtesy of the Mennonite Museum and Library. Clowns getting them to laugh immediately. If the spectators fail to laugh, say the clowns, then the educational value of their presentation will be lost. Those clown societies that have survived the impact of Western civilizations have done so only with considerable difficulty. Much of the opposition to them has come from crusading missionaries, their prime target the ceremonies at which native deities were worshipped—especially if the ceremonies included elements con¬ sidered lewd and distasteful by the outsiders. No doubt few of the missionaries who objected so strenuously to clown societies operating within the culture's religious framework were aware that for hundreds of years the Catholic Church had sanctioned similar clown festivities—the medieval Feast of Fools. THE FEAST OF FOOLS In 1445, the Faculty of Theology of the University of Paris ad¬ dressed a letter to all French cathedral chapters condemning cer¬ tain popular church festivities: "Priests and clerks may be seen wearing masks and monstrous visages at the hours of office. They dance in the choirs dressed as women, panders, or minstrels. They sing wanton songs. They eat black puddings at the horn of the altar while the celebrant is saying mass. They play at dice there. They cense with stinking smoke from the soles of old shoes. They run and leap through the church, without a blush at their own shame. Finally they drive about the town and its theatres in shab¬ by traps and carts; and rouse the laughter of their fellows and the bystanders in infamous performances with indecent gestures and verses scurrilous and unchaste."10 The subject of the harsh criticism was the Feast of Fools, a New Year's celebration during which the minor clergy were allowed to usurp the functions of their superiors and engage in a wide range of blasphemous yet officially approved clowning. The prevailing theme was the inversion of status, usually reflected in the election of a humble subdeacon as bishop and the staging of a mock Mass. Many of the revelers wore masks, laity and clergy exchanged costumes, and men even dressed up as women. The most common 16 Fools, Natural and Artificial item of apparel, however, was a peaked hood with two donkey ears. Although in many ways similar to the kalends and Saturnalia of ancient Rome, as well as to certain folk festivals, the Feast of Fools was first seen in twelfth-century France. It appeared in various forms throughout Europe, among them the popular Feast of the Ass (asinaria festa). In Beauvais, France, this featured a burlesque reenactment of the flight into Egypt, with a caparisoned donkey leading a mock procession through the town. Upon arriving at the Church of St. Etienne, the ass and its followers were welcomed in¬ side and a Mass was said. Instead of chanting the traditional Latin responses to the Mass, however, the congregation brayed back, "Hee-haw, hee-haw, hee-haw." Despite its enduring popularity, there were many intermittent attempts by some of the higher clergy, including several popes, to suppress the Feast of Fools. Nevertheless, the celebration persisted until the time of the Protestant Reformation and was still seen oc¬ casionally in the 1600s. "Never did pagans solemnize with such extravagance their superstitious festivals as do they," complained one writer in 1645, in reference to sacrilegious clowning at an An¬ tibes monastery. "The lay brothers, the cabbage-cutters, those who work in the kitchen, occupy the places of the clergy in the church. They don the sacerdotal garments, reverse side out. They hold in their hands books turned upside down, and pretend to read through spectacles in which for glass have been substituted bits of orange peel."11 The Feast of Fools survived for so long because of its wide¬ spread popularity, not only among the clergy, but also with the inhabitants of the cathedral towns of Europe. In some cases they valued these festivities highly enough to enforce them long after the clergy itself had lost interest. In Tournai (now a part of Belgium), for example, the townspeople required the local clergy to offer one of their number as mock bishop on Holy Innocents' Day. In 1489, the churchmen obtained a royal decree from Charles VIII restraining the town from forcing them to go through with the ceremony. In 1498, however, the laymen's carnival spirit and respect for tradition prompted them to kidnap eight clergy¬ men and hold them hostage until one would agree to perform the 17 The Bishop of Fools, bauble in hand. role of the Bishop of Fools. The church, of course, protested to local authorities, but to no avail, for the mayor himself had led the raid. The next day, townspeople succeeded in anointing a clergyman "bishop." The celebrants baptized their new spiritual leader with several buckets of water, paraded him around town for three days dressed in a surplice, and performed coarse farces for their fellow citizens. These and other daring acts led to a long- drawn-out legal battle between the church and the town, resulting in the formal abolition of the Tournai Feast of Fools in 1500. When the spirit of folly was no longer welcome within the doors of the church, it moved outside and was manifested in a secular form. In France, this resulted in the creation of amateur fool societies, the societes joyeuses ("joyful societies"), whose members devoted themselves to providing the same brand of ir¬ reverent fun. A large number of these groups existed throughout France in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, many of them pro¬ fessional guilds that counted revelry among their social activities. 18 Fools, Natural and Artificial Among the most prominent were the clercs de la basoche, a frater¬ nal organization of law clerks, and the enfants sans souci (" carefree lads"), a group of university students in Paris. These societes joyeuses followed in the tradition of the Feast of Fools, electing a King of Fools to celebrate Twelfth Night and other festive holidays and staging their own burlesque ceremonials, as well as mock processions characterized by loud, cacophonous music. The spirit of parody and role reversal so evi¬ dent in the ecclesiastical celebrations reappeared in the sermon joyeux, a travesty of the church sermon, which mimicked its pedantic structure, frequent Latin citations, and majestic conclu¬ sions. These discourses—like the vaudeville and minstrel show "stump speech" of a later era—dealt with such eternal themes as the evils of alcohol, the battle between the sexes, and the triumph of folly. These amateur fool societies also performed satirical clown plays called sotties, which portrayed everyone, from the lowly peasant to the king himself, as a sot (fool). All the world was seen as wearing the fool's cap and bells—and the characters were dressed accordingly. Physical comedy was combined with clever repartee, usually delivered in rhymed couplets, to form topical skits that satirized a wide range of social and ecclesiastical abuses. The dialogue, which was sometimes partly improvised, combined The money of the Pope of Fools. Medieval fool societies set up their own bylaws, elected officials, and even issued their own mock currency. Motto on token at right reads: numerus stultorum infinitus est ("the number of fools is infinite"). 19 Clowns French with local dialect. A few sottie performers already may have had experience as itinerant minstrels (chapter 2), while many others went on to become professional entertainers. The per¬ formers, however, were mostly amateurs. But they were young, agile, and quick-witted, and their texts represent, with the excep¬ tion of a few fragments of Greek and Roman mimes, the earliest extant scripts of pure clown performances. The sottie later evolved into a more subtle, if less direct, dramatic form, foreshadowing early French farce. It developed its own famous actor-authors, such as Pierre Gringoire (1475-C.1539), chief fool of the enfants sans souci, as well as its own form of theater clown—the badin. A comic servant rather than a sot, the badin was especially known for his sharp wit; it is from this trait that we derive the word badinage, meaning banter.12 The social function of the societes joyeuses in many ways paralleled that of the clown societies of the North American In¬ dians. The history of the amateur fool society of Dijon, France, officially known as L Infanterie Dijonnaise but nicknamed Mere- Folle, gives us some idea of how strong an influence these com¬ panies could have on their communities.13 When church authorities suppressed the Dijon Feast of Fools in the mid-fifteenth century, Philip the Good, the independent, fun-loving Duke of Burgundy, granted a charter (written in rhymed couplets!) for its continuation outside the church. By the second half of the six¬ teenth century, this secular tradition had evolved into the power¬ ful Mere-Folle company of fools, consisting of some 500 active members, including princes, lawyers, government officials, and merchants. Their motto was numerus stultorum infinitus est (“the number of fools is infinite"), while their nickname was taken from the title of their elected leader, the Mere-Folle or “head fool." (Although mere means "mother," the role was rarely if ever filled by a woman.) As was the case with many other societes joyeuses, the Mere- Folle became a strong force for justice and reform in Dijon. Misers, corrupt officials, and brutal husbands were common ob¬ jects of scorn. "This company took it upon itself," wrote a Dijon historian of the period, "to correct improper social conduct, and if someone transgressed, they were immediately apprehended and 20 Fools, Natural and Artificial subjected to a pitiless public censure." The culprit could easily become the subject of a satirical skit exposing his reprehensible behavior, or the chastisement might consist of parading him—or an effigy—through the streets. This chevauchee, or charivari (see color plate), as it was called, was seen in Dijon as late as 1700, when a respectable citizen who had a nasty habit of beating his wife was placed backwards on a jackass and exhibited all over town. At the height of the Mere-Folle' s popularity in the late 1500s, the power of the society to discipline indirectly by means of ridicule was devastating, and often was extended effectively to important government officials. Of course, the Mkre-Folle created enemies for itself in Dijon, among them certain entrenched powers who found such satire threatening. In 1630, the town was rocked by an uprising in protest of a tax peremptorily levied by King Louis XIII, and pictures of the monarch were burned in public. The revolt was eventually crushed and, although the role of the fool society in it was unclear, the result was a royal edict banning the Mere-Folle. All such festivities were thereafter strictly cen¬ sored. Subsequent celebrations had to be offered in praise of the state and were licensed and promoted by the municipal police. The demands of folly—in Dijon and elsewhere—came to be served by carnivals, which provided a festive atmosphere and the trappings of masquerade without the satiric substance of the Feast of Fools and the societes joyeuses. COURT FOOLS AND JESTERS The fool, whether natural or artificial, traditionally has been val¬ ued as an entertainer and was often retained as a more or less per¬ manent member of royal households, the fool "by right of office." Many fools even dressed like ordinary courtiers, while others wore a more distinctive multicolored costume, which included a cap with bells and either horns or donkey ears. A bauble with a carved replica of the fool's head was a popular prop, and an in¬ flated animal bladder tied to the end of a stick was a common weapon for the fool's slapstick clowning. Some fools were true simpletons, subjects for condescending 21 A selection of jesters' baubles. Note bladder attached to end of stick (no. 2), as well as phalluses, ass's ears, and replicas of fool's head on other baubles. Reproduced from Willeford, The Fool and his Scepter, by permission of Northwestern University Press. laughter, while others were intelligent and talented acrobats and musicians, who were held in high esteem by their masters. All were viewed as important status symbols; popes and kings had their fools, as did their imitators—aristocrats, city governments, and even tavern owners and brothel keepers.14 Although most prevalent in medieval and Renaissance Europe, the court fool has been a popular institution throughout history. When Cortes conquered the Aztecs in the 1520s, for example, he discovered fools, dwarfs, and hunchbacked buffoons at the court of Montezuma II, some of whom he brought back as presents for 22
Enter the password to open this PDF file:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-