Fool

(Court,) or JESTER, one of a cla of licensed buffoons anciently attached to almost every royal and noble household for the purpose of affording entertainment by their gibes, jests, and gambols to the master of the house, his family, and guests. They wore a distinctive dre , not unlike that of the clown on the modern stage, the chief insignia of which were the parti-colored fool's-cap bearing 3 a es' ears and a cock's comb, which surmounted a shaven head; a fancifully shaped sceptre; a wide collar; and bells, the latter sewn to the cap and other parts of the costume. Among the more celebrated of French C.-F. were Triboulet of the court of Francis I., Chicot, the jester of Charles IX., and Angely the cynical buffoon of Louis XIII., and the last ofhis order in that country. England had also her special representatives in this field of Momus; the C.-F. of Henry VIII., with their retinue of giants and Xit the dwarf, and Archie Armstrong, James I.'s licensed joker, being the most celebrated. C.-F. in all European countries save Ru ia were discontinued soon after the first quarter of the 17th cent. Peter the Great and the Empre Anne, however, kept up the practice much later. [s. 374]