Although on the death of L’Angeli in 1640 Louis XIV. appointed no successor, we occasionally meet with amateur fools who kept the Court amused. Thus Vardis, “after throwing the whole Court and household of the King into confusion by his audacious gallantries, was exiled to Provence for nearly thirty years,” and the Duke de Roquelaure figures in many jest-books as a buffoon at the Court of Louis XIV.
When Don John of Austria accompanied Pimentel to Paris to negotiate the marriage of Maria Theresa of Spain with the young Louis XIV., he introduced at Court Capiton, a Spanish folle, whose wit and jokes were much appreciated. Louis enjoyed her fun and merriment, and she was so popular that no party was thought complete without her.
According to a Spanish decree, “from ancient times it has been lawful for mimes or jesters to reside in princes’ households, for the execution of their office is a provocative to gladness. Wherefore, we will and ordain that in our Court there shall always be five jesters, of which five two may be trumpeters, and a third our letter-carrier.” Martin of Aragon had a favourite jester in the famous Borra, who, however, killed his royal patron by a joke. The story goes that, as the King lay on his bed groaning from indigestion through eating an entire goose, Borra rushed into the room laughing. On his inquiring whence he came, Borra replied, “Out of the next vineyard, where I saw a young deer hanging by his tail from a tree, as if some one had so punished him for stealing figs”—a joke which caused the King to die of laughter. And Luis Lopez, the fool of Alfonso, King of Aragon, lies buried in the cathedral of Cordova.
Amongst the fools that figured at the Italian Court may be mentioned Fagotto, who was officially associated with Alboin, King of the Lombards; and Bertoldo, of whom, writes Dr. Doran, little mention has been made by those who have dealt with the subject of Italian jesters. He is said to have been “hideously ugly,” with “hair as red as carrots,” but possessed of no ordinary wit. When asked by the King if he could contrive to bring him water in a sieve without spilling it, he answered, “In a hard frost I could bring any quantity.” All manner of questions were put to him to try his wit, and one day the King thought he had outwitted him by asking him to demonstrate—as he had asserted—that daylight was whiter than milk. He accepted the challenge, and having entered the King’s bedchamber at night, and closed the blinds, he placed a pail of milk in the middle of the room. Alboin rising in the dark, overturned the pail, and on calling for light, was answered by Bertoldo, who triumphantly remarked that “if the milk had been clearer than daylight, he would have seen the former without the aid of the latter.” Another well-known fool was Gonella, jester of Borso, Duke of Ferrara, whose post seems to have been a profitable one, from the fact of his betting a hundred crowns with his master that there were more doctors in Ferrara than there were members of any other profession.
“Fool,” said Borso, “there are not half-a-dozen to be found in the ‘City Directory.’”
“I will bring you a more correct list in three or four days,” replied Gonella; whereupon he went with his face bound up and sat at the church-door, and, as the passers-by learnt he had the toothache, they severally prescribed “an infallible remedy,” Gonella writing down the name and address of each instead of the prescription. In this way the fool managed to get a list of 299 names. And, on his appearing before his master with his head still bound up, he was informed there was no remedy but extraction, at which he added his name to the list of Ferrara doctors, which now numbered 300. But Gonella’s jokes cost him his life. Having offended his master, he resolved to punish him by fright, and sentenced him to be put to death. After the usual formalities had been enacted, Gonella placed his head on the block, and the executioner stepping forward let fall from a phial a single drop of water on his neck, which had all the effect of the sharpest instrument, for it was soon discovered that he was dead, which caused the spectators to exclaim, “A shocking bad joke, indeed!”
It was a practical joke that almost killed Menicucci, the jester of the Grand Duke Ferdinand I. One of his follies was conceit, and, to show his superiority, he once had his dinner served on the top of a high closet in the stone hall of the palace. But, while engaged in his repast, the ladder by which he had mounted was removed, and the floor covered with damp straw, which, being lighted, would have suffocated the terrified fool but for the timely assistance of the Archduke, who ordered his immediate release. And when Vincentius, Duke of Mantua, entertained Frederick, Duke of Wurtemberg, in 1600, he arranged a contest between his fool and a young wild boar, deprived of its tusks and upper teeth. A strange mode of diversion, which apparently gave much satisfaction.
But some of the most extraordinary scenes in connection with Court fools were those witnessed in Russia, where the position of jester was no sinecure. Thus, when Ivan IV. was depressed, his professional fools were summoned to amuse him, and they must have had a lively time, for a bad joke was sure to be strangled in the throat of the utterer. On one occasion he threw over Prince Gorsdorf, who had failed to be witty, a tureen of scalding-hot soup, and as the Prince endeavoured to escape the Czar plunged a knife into his side. The unhappy noble fell dead, and Ivan, remarking that he had carried the joke far enough, bade his physician attend to him.
“It is only God and your Majesty,” replied the medical man, “that can restore the Prince to life. He is quite gone!”
The Czar, somewhat disconcerted, took, writes Dr. Doran,[132] “a pleasant way of forgetting it. It chanced that a favourite noble came at this moment, whereupon his Majesty took hold of him by the ear, and, using his knife, he cut it off and flung it into the face of his old friend.” And “the noble received the same with many acknowledgments of his master’s condescension.”