He can be any of these, while the German word Narr is not so much a stem as the sturdy trunk of a tree efflorescent with fool vocabulary. The European words used to denote him can now seem as nebulous as they are numerous, reflecting the mercurial man behind them: fool, buffoon, clown, jongleur, jogleor, joculator, sot, stultor, scurra, fou, fol, truhan, mimus, histrio, morio. 179-117 B.C.), Rhapsody on the Shanglin Park Horace (65-8 B.C.), Satires, 2.3.158 Then come jesters, musicians and trained dwarfs,Īnd singing girls from the land of Ti-ti, (from Chapter 1: Facets of the Fool and Chapter 7: Stultorum Plena Sunt Omnia, or Fools Are Everywhere) Lee Siegel, author of Love in a Dead Language This is a fun book, bristling with pleasurable details.' Undaunted by the vastness of her subject and its resources, she presents a dazzling and entertaining collection of quotes, anecdotes, epigraphs, jokes, and comic texts. 'Sparkling with enthusiasm and wit, the text is sustained with Otto's love of her subject and informed by both her erudition and her very good sense of humor. In her richly detailed chapters (and an appendix listing 334 named fools in the historical record), Otto makes a vigorous case for the jester's ubiquityfrom the ancient Chinese court to the Elizabethan stage to the modern corporate suiteand for the consistency of his characteristics: attachment to a particular ruler physical or mental deformity (real or pretended) concern for the general welfare of the people and the freedom to alert isolated kings, emperors, sultans, even popes of their 'moral halitosis.'' ' lively survey of the state-sponsored mischief maker and his irrepressible, life-giving spirit.

Well worth a look by avid readers with an eye for an informative yet uncommon title.' Through anecdotes, historical details, analyses, and commentary, Otto brilliantly delineates the court jester, and quotations and illustrations do much to enhance this eminently readable text.

Otto's lively, well-researched text proves that there are centuries of other examples and that the jester has a rich tradition worldwide. 'Mention a court jester, and one pictures a whimsical creature in a belled hat or, perhaps, the ill-fated character in King Lear.

The court jester patter