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General Jester articles |
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In Praise of Folly by Erasmus of Rotterdam, translated by John Wilson in 1688. The original classic on the subject. |
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History of the Fool An excellent general article - read for a good introduction to many of the themes explored below. |
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Juggling.org Papers Juggling.org's excellent collection of papers on juggling, including history and symbolism. |
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The Fools' Parade, and the Feast of Fools by David Ricker. About the Feast of Fools, both original and at modern Renaissance Faires. |
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The Fool Is No Fool by Adam D Kane. An article about the Fool of the Tarot - OK, I think astrology is garbage, but the symbolism is very interesting and the themes fairly universal to jesters. |
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The Fool A general article on the metaphorical properties of the Fool. Familiar stuff, but clearly put. |
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Die mittelalterliche Narrenidee A truly fascinating article on the mediaeval fool, with especial reference to the 'Ship of Fools'. In German - of which I speak just enough to get the gist of this. If I ever get the chance I'll type out a translation for it... It also features some early woodcuts of jesters which I've never seen before. Highly recommended. PLEASE NOTE the link above appears to be bust as the site is under construction, so click here for an archived copy of the article held by the wonderful Wayback Machine. |
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Holy Madness An excellent and vastly well-informed article on holy madness in a wide variety of religions. If you're interested in comparative theology or sociology, it's particularly absorbing... Please note this article appears to have disappeared from the web, so the above link is to an archived version at the Wayback Machine (what would we do without it?) |
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Literary articles |
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The Survival of the Fool in Modern Heroic Fantasy Very interesting article about the fool in - unusually - modern storytelling. |
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Humor and Humor and Humor and Chaucer by Robert V Graybill. Clowns and Chaucer, commentary and speculation. |
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Moral Incongruity and Humor: The 'Good Bad' Poetry of Ogden Nash by George W Crandell. Revealing the serious heart of light verse. |
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The Saintly Fool figure in the fiction of Dostoevsky by Carroll S Keith. Just a couple of paragraphs, but still interesting. |