Jester Facts for Kids

Painting of a jester

A jester, court jester, or fool, was historically an entertainer during the medieval and Renaissance eras who was a member of the household of a nobleman or a monarch employed to entertain him and his guests. A jester was also an itinerant performer who entertained common folk at fairs and markets. Jesters are also modern-day entertainers who resemble their historical counterparts.

Jesters in medieval times are often thought to have worn brightly coloured clothes and eccentric hats in various patterns and their modern counterparts usually mimic this costume. Jesters entertained with a wide variety of skills: principal among them were song, music, and storytelling, but many also used acrobatics, juggling, telling jokes, and magic tricks. Much of the entertainment was performed in a comic style and many jesters made jokes in word or song about people or events well known to their audiences.

History

17th-century engraving of Will Sommers, Henry VIII's jester

Early jesters were popular in Ancient Egypt, and entertained Egyptian pharaohs. The ancient Romans had a tradition of professional jesters, called balatros. Balatrones were paid for their jests, and the tables of the wealthy were generally open to them for the sake of the amusement they afforded. Jesters were popular with the Aztec people in the 14th to 16th centuries.

Many royal courts throughout English royal history employed entertainers and most had professional fools, sometimes called licensed fools. Entertainment included music, storytelling, and physical comedy. It has also been suggested they performed acrobatics and juggling.

In the 18th century, jesters out except in Russia, Spain and Germany. In France and Italy, travelling groups of jesters performed plays featuring characters in a form of theatre called the commedia dell'arte. A version of this passed into British folk tradition in the form of a puppet show, Punch and Judy. In France the tradition of the court jester ended with the French Revolution.

Today, the jester is portrayed in different formats of medieval reenactment and entertainment, including film, stage performance, and carnival.

Images for kids

John Dawson Watson - Friends in Council
"Family of Henry VIII with Will Sommers on the far right and probably Jane Foole on the far left
Queen Henrietta Maria with Sir Jeffrey Hudson by Van Dyck
A court jester, carrying a marotte, selected for the Pageant of Empire in 1909
Portrait of the Ferrara Court Jester Gonella by Jean Fouquet 1445
Laughing jester, unknown Early Netherlandish artist (possibly Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen), circa 1500
Susuhunan jester participating in the "Garebeg Moeloed" procession (circa 1920s), Java, Indonesia
Stańczyk, by Jan Matejko. The Polish jester is the only person at a 1514 royal ball troubled by the news that the Russians have captured Smolensk.
Jester in Weingarten, Germany, in 2015
Masquerade by Golovin - Jester with hunch (1917, Bakhrushin museum)
Portrait of the Jester Balakirev (1699-1763)
The Court Jester of Tabbyland
Шут. Фрагмент миниатюры "Gaharié recevant le chapel" из "Романа о Ланселоте" (Français 112 (1), fol. 45), ок. 1470
Jester-doll made by Olina Ventsel (1938-2007)
Man dressed as a jester, with a fool's cap, motley and white tights.
Statue of a jester depicted in the book Letters from England by Karel Čapek
Oil on panel, signed with monogram, bears inscribed label for the Dundee Fine Art Exhibition, 1877, attached opt the reverse, 23.7x15.5 cm.
Private collection, oil on canvas. Jacob Jordaens (1641-1645).
Jester Resting on a chair by William Merritt Chase, 1875, the work is one of several trial poses William Merritt Chase painted as preparation for his Keying Up- The Court Jester
P. B. Abery (1877?-1948) & Wallace Jones
The Court Jester by John Watson Nicol, 1895, oil on canvas, 41 x 57 cm. (16.1 x 22.4 in.)
Rahere, Bouffon de Henry I et de la Reine Matilda, début 1100.
Chase William Merrit
Caricature of a court jester of Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, in the 16th century Recueil d'Arras, a collection of portraits copied by Jacques de Boucq
William Burges, English architect
Self Portrait in a Jester's Costume
The Jester Barbarossa by Francisco Goya
Royal Jester Stańczyk
Jester Knight Christoph by Hans Wertinger (1515, Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid)
Akram Mutlak Ménage À Trois Öl auf Leinwand
Bouffon

Jester facts for kids

History

Images for kids

See also