19th century, China, Chinese, East Asia, historical figure, play, primary source, Qing dynasty, quotes, stories
An actor who showed all the signs of being a jester was He Jiasheng 何家聲 (What Family Reputation). During the reign of the Guangxu Emperor (r. 1875-1908) he used an improvised pun to comment on the lack of reform in government.In the play Clear Brook Cave, he acted...
18th century, dramatic character, Europe, German, Germany, play, primary source, quotes
Ludwig Tieck’s play Puss-in-Boots (1796) features a court scholar who in the king’s eyes has the same status and function as the jester, as he explains while hurling his sceptre at the scholar’s head: Sir Brazenbold of Scholarship! What presumption...
19th century, China, Chinese, East Asia, historical figure, play, primary source, Qing dynasty, quotes, stories
During the Guangxu Emperor’s reign (1875-1908), the actor Liu Gansan 劉趕三 (1817-94), was acting the part of a bawd when he managed to crack a joke at the expense of three imperial princes who were in the audience. At the time prostitutes were called by their...
19th century, China, Chinese, dramatic character, East Asia, historical figure, play, primary source, Qing dynasty, quotes
Perhaps a Chinese equivalent to the Elizabethan Richard Tarlton in being a widely loved and acclaimed comic actor and a self-appointed ad hoc court jester was Liu Gansan 劉趕三 (1817-94), who had all the outspokenness of a jester and:left behind him the reputation of a...
16th century, dramatic character, Europe, France, French, play, primary source, quotes
The sottie was a genre of short, satirical play performed in France in the 15th and 16th centuries. Its name comes from ‘sot’ meaning ‘fool’, as many of the characters were one or another kind of fool. The plays could draw attention to...
16th century, dramatic character, Europe, German, Germany, play, primary source, quotes
This is from a 16th century German comic play featuring a jester who mocks the real fool of the story, the visiting doctor. The doctor is learned but condescending to his friend, the jester’s master, and disparaging about life in the country even though he is...
5th century, dramatic character, India, play, primary source, quotes, Sanskrit
Vidusaka is a stock comic character in ancient Sanskrit drama; there has been much ink spilled as to whether he was a jester or not, and many of the arguments against this proposition seem rather to confirm it. We’ll be featuring more quotes and stories about...
19th century, dramatic character, England, English, Europe, historical figure, play, primary source, quotes
A number of historical jesters had plays written about them, including Dongfang Shuo 東方朔 (c. 160 – c. 93 BCE) in China, and Henry VIII’s jester Will Somers. Here we find Charles the First (1824), a dramatic fragment by Shelley, which has Charles I give an...
