Cap and marot.

He has brains to play the fool;

And this business requires ingenuity:

He must know exactly who he is joking about,

Be able to judge people and time
And, like a wild falcon, strike from a raid
For every bird on the way. Craft
No easier than taking on the sane.
There is a wise sense in such foolishness,

And the clever one is often a fool.

William Shakespeare "Twelfth Night, or Whatever."

     Having chosen this close to me in spirit, incredibly difficult, deep and fascinating topic to study, at first I did not understand how complex and ambiguous it really is. Literally in all languages of the world - European, Asian and Middle Eastern, African and Austronesian, other foreign languages, a clownish theme sounds from time immemorial.

     It seems that jesters have always been in all countries, in every nation! Buffons and gaers, buffoons, farcers and clowns, clowns, balusters, buffoons and booth jesters, harlequins, polishinels and yerniks, ers, comedians and comedians, bimbos and jokers, eccentrics ... They still look at us from canvases of medieval painting, talk to us with poetry and prose through classical literary works and historical texts, from the stage of the theatrical stage, in everyday speech, harmless jokes and burning sharp sarcasm ... Each of them requires our special attention, awareness of the phenomenon of buffoonery, its essence, understanding of historical significance, as a cell of culture, as a component of human psychology.

     Let's see what Wikipedia tells us:

"Shut - a person at the court of the sovereign or in a noble house, whose duties were to entertain and amuse with amusing antics of gentlemen and guests. "

Traditionally, the jester was portrayed in a cap with bells. Its three long ends symbolized donkey ears and a tail - attributes of carnival costumes during the Roman Saturnalia and the "donkey processions" of the early Middle Ages. The jester often held a rattle in his hands: a stick with a bull's bubble tied to it, into which peas were poured. This affiliation has been with jesters since the days of ancient Rome. In Russia, jesters also adorned themselves with pea straw, which is where the name "pea jester" came from (Source: Wikipedia)

     Quite a restrained description, even a little dry.

Now let's dive into this topic a little deeper.

     The jester's appearance was supposed to reflect his essence and the role he played in society. That is why among the jesters there were so many hunchbacks and freaks, dwarfs, cripples - these have always been considered balancing between the real and the other worlds. Cursed and blessed, the jester could be both a scapegoat and a talisman, a shrewd prophet and a grief-maker.

     At the end of the Middle Ages, jesters were often depicted in three-top hats. The tongues on both sides of them were considered, however, the raised donkey ears, and the horn in the center - the cock's head. Sacred three-horned bulls, three-topped royal crowns, cross halos, now - and three-pointed jester's caps.

"Faithful friends". Hood. William Frederick Yeems (1870)

The jester's wand is an anti-scepter.

     The eternal companion of the jester - the jester's rod or marotte deserves special attention from us (we will talk about this in more detail without fail!). A rod with a pommel in the form of a carved head of a laughing clown was not just the jester's "antisceptre", but also his companion, interlocutor, partner. Some researchers believe that marot comes from stylized idols that depicted the patron spirits of the clan. They looked about the same - a rod with a sculpted head at the end, and the similarity, for example, of the Flemish marot and the Novgorod idol-brownie is simply striking. Well, this has its own logic: if the jester-trickster was marked with the seal of supernatural wisdom, a prophetic gift, the favor of otherworldly forces, then he could be on a short leg with the spirits of his ancestors. The amusing attribute really became a scepter, a reminder of the forces behind the scoffer, embedded in a doll's head with a handle.

From a jester to a prophet, one step.

     Jesters appeared in antiquity. The first mention of the jester is found in Pliny the Elder in his story about the visit of Apelles to the palace of King Ptolemy I. The jester was the symbolic twin of the king. He was allowed more than anyone else, under the guise of a joke, he could talk about what others were not allowed. Not only people with acting abilities, but also people with mental disabilities often earned their livelihood by fooling around. Traditionally, the jester, like the herald, had immunity. Seriously punishing or executing a jester was considered bad form (although there were such cases).

     The heyday of buffoonery came in the Middle Ages, when for many it was the only way to earn a living. All the royal courts of the Middle Ages had their own jesters who entertained the monarchs and their entourage with playing music, juggling, jokes and anecdotes, all kinds of puzzles, riddles and games. The jester was allowed more than anyone else, under the guise of a joke he could talk about what others were not allowed. Isn't this the main role of buffoonery, the essence of the action itself ?! Here I would draw a parallel with a certain balance bar, weights and even a conventional mirror, as you please. And then it turns out that there is no man without a "fool", and there is no jester without a "king."

Monument to Thiel Ulenspiegel, the legendary rogue and vagabond in Möln, Germany

     There is also a definite connection between the tradition of buffoonery and the tradition of foolishness. Researchers are inclined to believe that the sacred meaning of buffoonery is rooted in paganism, and buffoons are not crazy, but Pythias, prophets, keepers of secret knowledge. And really, where are we without secret knowledge?

Hieronymus Bosch "Ship of Fools" 1495-1500. Louvre. Paris

 The picture is full of poignant social and political satire with an ambiguous German name "Narrenschiff" ("Narr" - fool, jester). One of the characters in the picture is the Jester, sitting alone at the stern of a ship full of people mired in vice and immorality.

Reflection in the mirrors of kings.

    In Russia, buffoonery has a long tradition. The character of Russian fairy tales, Ivan the Fool, is often opposed to the Tsar precisely as the bearer of some secret knowledge that seems stupid.

     In the Russian tradition, you can find a replacement for the word "devil" (or, in general, devilry) word jester. Widely known, for example, are the stable expressions "What a fool with him", "What a fool?". In North Russian villages, mermaids are called jokes or devils.

     In medieval Europe, due to the lack of freedom of speech, the nobles could not openly criticize the king, and the king could not always afford to criticize influential nobles. The jesters did it for them, often in a veiled form. And if they crossed the boundaries of what was permitted, then they punished them, not the nobles. Through the antics and chatter of jesters, representatives of the medieval elite brought their claims, criticism, complaints or especially risky proposals and ideas to the attention of each other and the king. Do you think that something has changed since those ancient times? ...

Stanchyk, fragment of the painting by Jan Matejko

        In medieval France, jesters were at the court of the kings of France already in the XIV century. The jester was perceived as a funny reflection of the sovereign and in some ways was equated with him. Both of them, it was then believed, were marked by divine attention, although each in its own way.

Jesters and dolls, jester dolls.

     But how is the theme of buffoonery related to the puppet world? Just imagine how wide this field is for the creativity of puppeteers! There are theater stages, painting, costume history, and the whole range of literary genres ... And, of course, in the arsenal of every puppeteer there is a work where the main character is an actor - a performer of comic, jester roles, a grimace, a merry fellow or a braggart, the one who rudely, sometimes inappropriately jokes, and then weeps, laughs and makes people laugh with funny faces, breaks down, pretends and, literally, pulls out what is hidden deep inside each of us ... And if not yet, then this image is already ripening in our heads and will surely burst out - it will become a wonderful piece, capable of touching the strings of the depths of the soul of the most callous of people.

The puppeteers are joking ...

     Epochs changed, the faces of jesters changed, but the jesters themselves are still with us - at the same time sad and funny, foolish and wise, cunning, sagacious, all-seeing ... They accompany us throughout our life, wink at us, watch us ... and something whisper.

     I invite you to plunge into the puppet world of our masters' buffoonery. You will see the works that were created by puppeteers, inspired by painting of the Middle Ages, literary works of several centuries, facts from the history of rulers of different countries and centuries. You can see the work of puppeteers on the theme of buffoonery at puppet exhibitions of all levels. They are exhibits of private collections and objects of museum funds around the world. They delight us with their inner content, aesthetics of execution, simplicity and complexity, naivety, liveliness of the look. Puppet jesters, clowns and jokers are our silent interlocutors, and often doubles.

Clown. Author - Nina Radzikhovskaya.

Joker. Author - Natalia Zotova

Joker (English joker - joker, from English joke - joke), a special card in the deck (usually with the image of a jester).

Buffoon. The author is Elena Babkina. Dec 2019

Author: Gulya Alekseeva

Author: Gulya Alekseeva

Joke dance. Joker. Author - Nelly Aleinikova, 2020

Parsley. Co-authorship of the collective of the Ryazan Regional Puppet Theater. Execution - Elena Babkina, Lyubov Rogozina. Oct 2018

“What is our life? The game?". Author - Oksana Shebaleva.

Dergunchik "Gaer". Author - Elena Babkina 2017

Jester's composition. Author - Stepanova Larisa.

Joker. Author - Alina Kharchenko.

Jester's composition. Author - Svetlana Zaripova.

Columbine. Author - Elena Babkina 2019

Jester. Author - Vera Styagova

Jester's composition. Author - Marina Mamoshina

Buffoons. Author - Rogozina Lyubov, 2015

Ginger from Chapito. Author - Tatiana Adamenko, 2020

Comedians. Author - Rogozina Lyubov, 2015

The last role. Author - Elena Babkina 2015

Teddy bear jester. Author - Irina Strelnikova.

Kashtanka. Author - Rogozina Love, 2019

Cap and marot. Author - Elena Babkina, 2018

We will definitely meet again!

     Today we have just touched a little bit to the vibrant and complex world of acting. We still have to figure out the history of the jester's costume, its features and the meaning of some details. And it will be very interesting for a puppeteer artist!

And also let's talk about "doll for a doll" - a buffoon's wand, transformed over the centuries into a flirting instrument. When and why did this happen? We have to figure out all the meanings of #marotte. We will see the best examples of old mechanisms and their analogues and reproductions of our contemporaries - puppeteers.

And we will be inspired to new works by acquaintance with famous historical figures, such as the court jesters of Peter the Great Ivan Alexandrovich Balakirev, the narrator of anecdotes, Jan Lacoste, to whom Peter granted an island in the Gulf of Finland and the title of "Samoyed King" for political and theological disputes.

We will discover the court jester of King Henry III Shiko - an extremely intelligent and noble man. It will be interesting for you to know that a rare sly and rogue Khoja Nasreddin in Islam was also called a clown. You will be surprised that among the jesters there were also aristocrats, such as Prince Volkonsky and Prince Golitsyn, Count Apraksin ... Jesters of Empress Anna Ivanovna (there were six of them!) And Ivan the Terrible - incredibly famous personalities!

     Joke, joke and be creative, my friends!

 Elena Babkina.