By Robert Hornback
From the late-medieval interval via to the 17th century, English theatrical clowns carried a weighty cultural value, basically to have it stripped from them, occasionally violently, through the shut of the Renaissance whilst the famed "license" of fooling was once successfully revoked. This groundbreaking survey of clown traditions within the interval seems to be either at their heritage, and divulges their hidden cultural contexts and legacies; it has far-reaching implications not just for our normal knowing of English clown forms, but additionally their enormous position in defining social, spiritual and racial limitations. It starts off with an exploration of formerly un-noted early representations of blackness in medieval psalters, cycle performs, and Tudor interludes, arguing that they're emblematic of folly and lack of knowledge instead of of evil. next chapters convey how protestants at Cambridge and at courtroom, through the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward, patronised a clownish, iconoclastic Lord of Misrule; examine the Elizabethan puritan level clown; and stream directly to a provocative reconsideration of the idiot in King Lear, drawing thoroughly clean conclusions. ultimately, the epilogue issues to the satirical clowning which happened surreptitiously within the Interregnum, and the (sometimes violent) finish of "licensed" folly.
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Extra info for The English Clown Tradition from the Middle Ages to Shakespeare
Sample text
It can be dated to April of 1566, when signs of strain appeared in the relationship between Elizabeth I and her longtime visitor, Princess Cecilia of Sweden. Once a favorite at the English court, Cecilia had overstayed her welcome during an extended visit (through her extravagant free-loading), and had abruptly left the country to rejoin her husband. She was unwilling to accept any blame for the rift, however, and presented a retaliatory list of complaints to her brother John, newly become Swedish king, who then forwarded it to Queen Elizabeth’s secretary Cecil.
475). Evidently, a fool’s coat and Ignorance’s or some other double’s assistance were no longer required to mark folly in this scene because blackface and bauble were now sufficient. It is also significant that, as we learn in Anthony Munday’s Sir Thomas More (c. 62 Therefore, blacking episodes such as those in the “Wit” plays and other works with foolish black devils would likely have been seen through much of England. FROM CHILDS’ PLAY(S) TO SLAVERY Rather than the “Wit” plays being isolated anomalies, a marked association between blackface and folly was, though hardly ubiquitous, fairly widespread in late medieval and Renaissance drama.
Thereafter, upon examining his reflection in his “glas of reson” (l. 824), Wyt exclaims: … gogs sowle a foole[,] a foole by the mas … deckt by gogs bones lyke a very asse … & as for this face[, it] is abhominable as black as the devyll. (ll. ” [l. 833]), he comments on the contrast: “All fayre & cleere they, evry chone; / & I, by the mas, a foole alone” (ll. 834–5). ” 52 53 John Redford, Wit and Science, ed. Arthur Brown (Oxford, 1951), ll. 434–5; emphasis added. All subsequent citations refer to this edition and will be cited parenthetically.