This collection of essays brings together the most up-to-date work
on the subject of fools and foolishness in English, Dutch, French,
and German literature, art, and society from 1200 to 1600,
providing a refreshing approach to the well-known subject of
foolery.
The period from 1200 to 1600 was the golden age of fools. From
representations of irreverent acts to full-blown insanity, fools
appeared on the misericords of gothic churches and in the plots of
Arthurian narratives, before achieving a wider prominence in
literature and iconography in the decades around 1500. But how are
we to read these figures appropriately? Is it possible to
reconstruct the fascination that fools exerted on the medieval and
early modern mind? While modern theories give us the analytical
tools to explore this subject, we are faced with the paradox that
by striving to understand fools and foolishness we no longer accept
their ways but impose rational categories on them. Together these
essays propose one way out of this dilemma. Instead of attempting
to define the fool or trying to find the common denominator behind
his many masks, this volume focuses on the qualities, acts, and
gestures that signify foolishness. By investigating different
manifestations of foolery rather than the figure of the fool
himself, we can begin to understand the proliferation of fools and
foolish behaviour in the texts and illustrations of manuscripts and
early books.
Preface
List of Abbreviations
Introduction - ALEXANDER SCHWARZ AND LUCY PERRY
Traditions of Simulated Folly in The Canterbury Interlude and Tale of Beryn - GUILLEMETTE BOLENS
A Fool and a Troubadour: Folly in the Legend of Peire Vidal - SUSANNA NIIRANEN
An Anglo-Norman Fool in Constantinople: Der Pfaffe Amis - CORDULA BÖCKING-POLITIS
Sebastian Brant’s Ship of Fools and its Woodcuts - SIEGRID SCHMIDT
Eulenspiegel Meets Nasreddin: A Fools’ Contest - ALEXANDER SCHWARZ
After the Laughter: Discipline Through Narration. The Fool’s Didactics in Wolfgang Büttner’s Jocular Prose Tales (Schwänke) Featuring Claus Narr (1572) - PETER GLASNER
Playing the Fool: Eccentric Behaviour and Political Acumen in Wace’s Roman de Rou - FRANÇOISE LE SAUX
‘Marcel far to helle; & tel heom þer spelles’ (Brut, line 13245): ‘Off’ Jokes and Crude Behaviour in Lawman’s Brut - ROSAMUND ALLEN
A Small History of Laughter, or When Laughter Has to Be Reasonable - STEFAN BIEßENECKER
‘Cel neim […] est fols’: ‘Fool-like’ Dwarfs and the Irony of Fictionality in French Texts around 1200 - TANJA-ISABEL HABICHT
The Issue of Madness in Tristan Romances - PATRIZIA MAZZADI
‘What kind of fool am I?’: The Tragi-comedy of the Love Potion in the Thomas/Gottfried Branch of the Tristan Legend - NEIL THOMAS
Don’t Make Me Laugh! Fooling Around in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - LUCY PERRY
Index
"Tente de définir le fou derrière ses multiples masques littéraires et iconographiques entre 1200 et 1600, tel est l'objet de cet ouvrage collectif, particulièrement réussi, riche en analyses critiques et en documents. (...) D'une façon globale, l'ouvrage renouvelle actuelle des études sur les fous, en en livrant une belle synthèse, problématisée et exhaustive, aux époques médiévales et modernes." (Martine Clouzot, dans: Sehepunkte, 12 (2012), Nr. 7/8, 15.07.2012, http://www.sehepunkte.de/2012/07/20842.html)