17th century, Europe, fictive fool, primary source, quotes, Spain, Spanish
This website and the book which inspired it both seek to address this complaint, attributed to the perhaps real but probably fictive 17th century Spanish jester, Estebanillo González, who laments that the history books generally remain ‘silent in the face of...
10th century, China, Chinese, East Asia, historical figure, primary source, quotes, stories, Tang dynasty
Generally speaking, jesters enjoyed a widely recognised licence which included the latitude to be irreverent. However, they were dealing with very powerful individuals and sometimes their barbs or mockery would hit home too hard and they would find themselves...
Europe, folk fool, medieval, primary source, quotes, stories
Marcolf is the eternal folk fool, paired with a king noted for his wisdom, Solomon, whom Marcolf always manages to best. Tales of his irreverence were in wide circulation in medieval Europe. Here he resorts to a classic fool trick which is to follow the king’s...
19th century, gallery, primary source, Russia, Russian
The skomorokh is a Russian term which spans entertainers, musicians, buffoons, jesters, harlequins, minstrels or actors. This is a 19th century depiction of a skomorokh and his costume by Apollinary Vasnetsov (1856-1933). It isn’t clear if it is a portrait of...
18th century, gallery, India, primary source
A curious drawing, from the late 18th century, of a named dwarf dancing in the presence of a pair of Indian soldiers (‘sepoys’ in the title of the sketch). I stumbled across this in the same search that yielded a 17th century Dutch painting of a dancing...
10th century, China, Chinese, East Asia, historical figure, primary source, quotes, Southern Tang, stories
Court jesters and dwarfs would sometimes accompany the nobles they served on their travels; among other examples, we know some of the Spanish court dwarfs travelled to Portugal with members of the royal family. In China too, the jester might go with the emperor on...
20th century, Europe, Hebrew / Yiddish, historical figure, Poland, primary source, quotes, stories
Always up-ending our expectations, no surprise to learn that the ever resourceful Rubinstein, de facto jester in the Warsaw Ghetto, nimbly solved the problem of being single by dressing up as his own wife. He could outwit death, so why not celibacy?’One source...
18th century, gallery, India, primary source
This sketch of an individual, done by an Anglo-Indian artist around 1790, has the intriguing title of ‘A fool named Gungarum’. At first I wondered if it was a portrait of a recognised or quasi-professional fool, but noting the similarity between the...
