Fools Are Everywhere - welcome page header

Yes! Keep me posted

Family first

During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong (r. 713-56), his beloved consort (and one of the most famous in Chinese history), Yang Guifei, showed great...

The source of life

Here the ever bold lady Folly makes her irrefutable claim to be the source of life. Yet another brazen statement by this folly goddess. And the...

An equation of survival

Rubinstein was the astonishing, funny and heart-rending fool of the Warsaw Ghetto, bracingly witty, and perhaps as mad as he was brilliant, or just...

Dispelling disorder

An outright statement of a jester's using humour to offer corrective advice. `Although at that time jesters of the Liao court were numerous, there...

Betting on a king

One class of stories about jesters concerns their capacity to make the king concentrate on doing his job rather than being distracted by perhaps...

Reductio ad absurdum

Bakhtin sums up a form of humour sometimes deployed by jesters seeking to enlighten the ruler. Rather than remonstrating to change behaviour, they...

The Spanish Infanta and the dwarf Madalena

This painting depicts the Spanish Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia (1566-1633), Archduchess of Austria, in an affectionate pose with the dwarf natural...

Anyone with legs can climb to the top

During the Xining reign period (1068-77) of Emperor Shenzong 宋神宗 (r. 1067-85), Prime Minister Wang Anshi (1021-86) implemented his New Reform Laws. ...

Portrait of Madalena Ruiz

The female dwarf Madalena Ruiz served at the Spanish court from 1565 for some forty years. See also the portrait of her alongside the Spanish...

Record cover of Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel

Till Eulenspiegel was a medieval European hit as far as folk fools go. Stories about this fictitious impish character circulated in many languages. ...

Jester in a fool’s cap

This enigmatic painting by Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem (1562-1638) features a fool with the cap so often attributed to European jesters, though...

Ceramic Egyptian dwarf

The earliest reference I have found to a possible court jester concerns a dwarf at the Egyptian court in the 3rd millennium BCE. It appears that...

Painting of Birbal

Birbal was a Hindu courtier, described by some as a Minister or of similarly high rank, at the court of Akbar the Mughal emperor (r. 1556-1605). ...

The nature of the buffone

Writing during the latter part of the European jester's heyday, Giulio Landi (1498-1579) defined the buffone as one without limits to their...

Ding-dong ding-dong

A common technique among Chinese jesters was to put together a skit to get a point across to the Emperor, in this resembling something...

An aristocratic fool

This is from a superb and absorbing trilogy which chronicles the self-induced decline of the Hungarian aristocracy in the years leading to the First...

Sing along with the Duchess

A charming moment described by Galeazzo da San Severino (c. 1460-1525) in a letter to Isabella d'Este (1474-1539), in which he recounts a journey in...

Exposing bribery

Following the practice of Chinese jesters to cook up a simple skit in order to draw the emperor's attention to what's really going on, here a group...

Dwarf-jesters at the Aztec court

The Aztec king Montezuma II (1466-1520) had jesters and every mention we have of them points to their having been deformed in some way. Bernal Diaz...

A pun to commute a sentence

A rare example of a jester facing execution and all the more exceptional for having the ruler about to strike the fatal blow himself. ...

The indispensable truth teller

This is a fictitious jester, drawing on the Thousand and One Nights, and commenting on the archetypal role of the jester as truth-teller, in this...

Pile it on

Jesters, like other entertainers or courtiers, could enjoy the generosity of the ruler, and there are many such examples in anecdotes...

What was your father’s name?

Talhak, jester to Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna (r. 998-1030), enjoyed a close and easy relationship with him. See also the lexicon entry for...

Speaking out boldly

Dongfang Shuo 東方朔 was known as a jester to Emperor Han Wudi 漢武帝 (r. 141-87 BCE), although this tricky character covers a spectrum...

Take him off my hands

There are some surviving anecdotes on the informal and meritocratic way in which jesters could be recruited. Sometimes they were...

Currency exchange

A frequent feature of Chinese jesterdom was the pre-prepared skit, which could be said to have been precursors, or at least...

Folly is a divine state

There, doesn't that make you feel better? However, note that in being a divine state, you are no more entitled to be proud than ashamed of it. 'It...

Fedor’s fools

Giles Fletcher was appointed English ambassador to Tsar Fedor I (r. 1584-98) on 6th June 1588. His account of his stay in Moscow was one of the most...