FOOL

profe ional or court jester, or buffoon. Such jesters were employed amongst the ancient Greeks, and they were to be found at most European and Eastern courts during the Middle Ages and down to comparatively modern times. The f.’s dre was _part i colored; he wore a close-fitting hood decorated with a cockscomb upon his shaven head, and carried a ‘bauble’ in his hand.—The Feast of Fools was a mock-religious observance in the Middle Ages, probably derived from Rom. Saturnalia. It reached its greatest development in the XI. and XII. cent’s, when the choir-boys used to elect one of their number as bp., go to church, and hold a mock service; these customs lasted till the XVI. cent. (later in France).