Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/380

366 F O O F O Isabella of Angoulemc Eleanora s being of oak and the rest of stone. The second court of the abbey contains a remarkable building, which long went under the misnomer of chapelle funeraire, but was in reality the old kitchen. Details and diagrams will be found in Viollet-le-Duc s Dirtionnaire de I Architecture. There are three stories, of which the first is an octagon, the second a square, and the third an octagon ; and the whole is surmounted by a sort of pyramidal structure. Fontevrault was founded about the end of the llth century by Robert of Arbrissel, who was born in the village of Arbrissel or Arbresec, in the diocese of Rennes, and attained great fame as a preacher and ascetic. It consisted of a nunnery for virgins and widows, a magdaleneum, a hospital for lepers and other diseased folk, a convent, and a church. The church was used both by the monks and the nuns, but no communica tion was permitted between the two sexes. The order of Fontevrault was recognized by Pascal II. in 1106, and again more expressly by a bull in 1 1 1 3. It was placed by its founder under the patronage of the Holy Virgin, and entrusted to the superintendence of an abbess, who was supreme not only over the nuns but also over the monks. The first who held the office was Petronella de Craon- Chemille . The success of the order was so great that at Robert s death it is said there were no fewer than 3000 nuns. It ultimately numbered fifty-seven priories, divided into the four provinces of France, Aquitaine, Auvergne, and Brittany. It continued till the French Revolution, and the abbey of Fontevraud was the usual place to which the princesses of the blood royal of France were sent for their education. The last abbess, Julie Sophie Charlotte de Pardaillan, died at Paris in 1799 in great destitution. Sec Edouard, Fontevrault ct scs monuments, ou Histoire de cctte royalc abbayc depute sa fondation jusqiC <i so, suppression (1100- 1793), oriite d unc gravurc ct des armoiries dcs abbesses. 2 vols., 1875. FOOCHOW. See FUH-CHOW. FOOD. See DIETETICS, FOOL. The class of fools, buffoons, or jesters, which reached its culminating point of influence arid recognized place and function in the social organism during the Middle Ages, appears to have existed in all times and countries. Not only have there always been individuals naturally inclined and endowed to amuse others ; there has been besides in most communities a definite class, the members of which have used their powers or weaknesses in this direction as a regular means of getting a livelihood. Savage jugglers, medicine-men, and even priests, have certainly much in common with the jester by profession. There existed in ancient Greece a distinct class of professed fools whose habits were not essentially different from those of the jesters of the Middle Ages. Of the behaviour of one of these, named Philip, Xenophon has given a picturesque account in the Banquet. Philip of Macedon is said to have possessed a court fool, and certainly these (as well as court poets and court philosophers, with whom they have sometimes been not unreasonably confounded) were com mon in a number of the petty courts at that era of civili zation. Scurrcc and moriones were the Roman parallels of the mediaeval witty fool ; and during the empire the manufacture of human monstrosites was a regular practice, slaves of this kind being much in request to relieve the languid hours. The jester again has from time immemoral existed at eastern courts. Witty stories are told of Bahalul (see D Herbelot, s.v.) the jester of Haroun Al Raschid, which have long had a place in Western fiction. On the conquest of Mexico court fools and deformed human crea tures of all kinds were found at the court of Montezuma. But that monarch no doubt hit upon one great cause of the favour of monarchs for this class when he said that " more instruction was to bo gathered from them than from wiser men, for they dared to tell the truth." Mr Douce, in his essay On the Clowns and Fools of Shakespeare, has made a ninefold division of English fools, according to quality and place of employment, as the domestic fool, the city or corporation fool, the tavern fool, the fool of the mysteries and moralities. The last is generally called the " vice," and is the original of the stage clowns so common among the dramatists of the time of Elizabeth, arid who embody so much of the wit of Shakespeare. A very palpable classification is that which distinguishes between such creatures as were chosen to excite to laughter from some deformity of mind or body, and such as were so chosen for a certain- (to all appearance generally very shallow) alertness of mind and power of repartee, or briefly, butts and wits. The dress of the regular court fool of the Middle Ages was not altogether a rigid uniform. To judge from the prints and illuminations which are the sources of our knowledge on this matter, it seems to have changed considerably from time to time. The head was shaved, the coat was motley, and the breeches tight, with generally one leg different in colour from the other. The head was covered with a garment resembling a monk s cowl, which fell over the breast and shoulders, and often bore asses ears, and was crested with a cockscomb, while bells hung from various parts of the attire. The fool s bauble was a short staff bearing a ridiculous head, to which was sometimes attached an inflated bladder, by means of which sham castigations were effected. A long petticoat was also occasionally worn, but seems to have belonged rather to the idiots than to the wits. The fool s business was to amuse his master, to excite him to laughter by sharp contrast, to prevent the over-oppression of state affairs, and, in harmony with a well-known physiolo gical precept, by his liveliness at meals to assist his lord s digestion. The names and the witticisms of many of the official jesters at the courts of Europe have been preserved by popular or state records. In England the list is long between Hitard, the fool of Edmund Ironside, and Muckle John, the fool of Charles I., and probably the last official royal fool of England. Many are remembered from some connexion with general or literary history. Scogan was attached to Edward IV., and under his name Andrew Boorde published a collection of poor jests. Will Som- mers, of the time of Henry VIII., seems to have been a kind-hearted as well as a witty man, and occasionally used his influence with the king for good and charitable pur poses. Arnim, who, in his Nest of Ninnies, gives a full description of Sommers, and introduces many popular fools, says of him " Only this much, he was a poor man s friend, And helpt the widow often in her end. The king would ever grant what he would crave, For well he knew Will no exacting knave. The literature of the period immediately succeeding his death is full of allusions to Will Sommers. John Hey wood was an educated man, a poet and dramatist, as well as jester to Queen Mary. Some of his dialogues have in con ception a racy national humour. John Tarleton, famous as a comic actor, cannot be omitted from any list of jesters. A book of Tarleton s Jests, was published in 1611, and, together with his News Out of Purgatory, was reprinted by Mr Halliwell for the Shakespeare Society in 1844. Archie Armstrong, for a too free use of wit and tongue against Laud, lost his office and was banished the court. The conduct of the archbishop against the poor fool is not the least item of the evidence which convicts him of a certain narrow-mindedness and pettiness. In French his tory, too, the figure of the court-jester flits across the gay or sombre scene at times with fantastic effect. Caillettc