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Fools, Feast of Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages
..., Feast of *Festival associated with the Feast of the Circumcision (1 January). Enduring from the 11th century on despite ecclesiastical condemnation, it was characterized by *carnivalesque sacrilege and the election of a subdeacon as Fool Bishop. See also asses, feast of ; boy bishop . Robert S. Sturges E. K. Chambers , The Mediaeval Stage , 2 vols (1903). J. Heers , Fêtes des fous et carnavals ...
Antiquarianism (Popular) Reference library
An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age
... ( 1732–1802 ). But the most developed and scholarly of the pieces in Archaeologia is ‘Some Remarks on the ancient Ceremony of the Feast of Fools’, read on 10 May 1804 . Douce acknowledges that the ‘Ceremony’ in question has recently been described by Joseph *Strutt , in his Glig-Gamena Angel-Deod, Sports and Pastimes of the People of England ( 1801 ), but he suggests that Strutt was not aware of its ‘precise significance’ as a symptom of a degenerate religion rather than ‘part of the general mass of ancient mummeries’. After medievalism, Douce's second...
lord of Misrule
Feast of Asses
versus
Asses, Feast of Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages
...Feast of Either of two parodic liturgies associated with the Feast of *Fools . One honoured Balaam’s Ass; the other, celebrated 14 January, honoured the ass of the Flight into Egypt. It featured antiphonal braying and the laudatory ‘Prose of the Ass’. See also boy bishop ; fools, feast of ; liturgical year ; liturgy . Robert S. Sturges I. S. Gilhus , ‘ Carnival in Religion: The Feast of Fools in France ’, Numen , 37/1 (1990), 24–52. —— ‘ Eselmesser ’, Tradisjon , 23 (1993),...
fools Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance
... Had significant roles both in folk festivals and at court from early medieval times through to the sixteenth century. In the former, they were associated with ritual disruption of established order, a role deriving from the New Year ‘Feast of Fools’ revelries, in which church and cathedral hierarchies were reversed, and inferiors temporarily usurped the roles of their superiors. The fool's traditional costume of parti-coloured hood and suit, with bells, a fool's head on a stick, and sometimes ears and a tail, was also adopted by the court fool, or king's...
ass, Feast of the Reference library
Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages
...Feast of the The ass, which had kept the Baby Jesus warm and taken the Holy Family to Egypt, played an important role, from the 12th and 13th cc., in the dramatic offices and collective rejoicings that marked the Christmas cycle. Ridden sometimes by a young girl, who personified the Virgin and held a child in her arms, sometimes by a child , “bishop of fools”, or wearing a mitre , the ass could be led into the church or through the town, in a procession that was part of the “feast of Fools” or of the “Innocents”, also called “feast of the Ass”. The...
boy bishop Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages
...bishop Choirboy elected mock bishop from the 11th century on. He performed non-sacramental episcopal duties from St Nicholas ’s Day (6 December) to the Feast of the Holy Innocents (28 December). See also fools, feast of ; sacraments . Robert S. Sturges M. Milway , ‘ Boy Bishops in Early Modern Europe: Ritual, Myth, and Reality ’, in The Dramatic Tradition of the Middle Ages , ed. C. Davidson (2005),...
versus Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages
...chant verse; specifically, 11th- and 12th-century versified Latin chants, many strophic with a refrain, often designated versus in Aquitainian MSS, in other regions *conductus or * cantio . They feature in special *Christmas and New Year ceremonies (for example, the Feast of *Fools ). See also polyphony: to 1300 . David Hiley W. Arlt , Ein Festoffizium des Mittelalters aus Beauvais in seiner liturgischen und musikalischen Bedeutung ...
Innocents, Feast of the Holy Reference library
Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages
...going under a variety of names: “feast of the Innocents”, “feast of Fools”, “of Children”, “of Deacons”, or even “feast of the ass ”, were repeatedly condemned by the ecclesiastical authorities (in 1198 by Bishop Eudes of Paris , in 1444 by the faculty of theology at Paris …). However in the 12th c., in his Summa of ecclesiastical offices , the Liturgist John Beleth mentions these parodies as a regular custom. And various documents attest that up to the end of the Middle Ages, feasts of the Innocents or of Fools were regularly celebrated....
carnival Reference library
Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages
...subversion of the temporal and social order , the reign of the wild man, of all kinds of excesses and follies. Carnival was a set of customs rather than an organised feast, whose games were based on inversion and antithesis. Combats were moralized in the context of the Christian Middle Ages, and all these rites had a propitiary character. Despite prohibitions of masques by church councils , ceremonies parodying the liturgy (feast of Fools, Asses, Innocents ) took place in churches with the participation of the lower clergy. Realm of youth , laughter...
festivals Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages
...subversive vision of an alternative social order. Festivals were indeed feared for their potential to explode into disorder, and suppressed or prohibited at times of unrest. They functioned to convey ideological messages, and reflected the way of life and standard of living of the participants. Festivals and the customs they encompassed are valuable indicators of the characteristics of a particular society, as are the attitudes towards festivals or certain festive practices. See also asses, feast of ; boy bishop ; fools, feast of . Anu Mänd B. A....
parody Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages
... was genuinely intended to destabilize the political order, as in the parodic legal epistle sent to Richard de Snaweshill of Yorkshire in 1336 : de Snaweshill felt threatened enough to turn the parody over to the authorities (Scattergood, 148–9). Although parody was likely always entertaining to its author, various factors determined whether it was equally entertaining to its audience. See also fools, feast of ; sermon ; vices and virtues . Martha Bayless W. Ax and R. F. Glei , eds, Literaturparodie in Antike und Mittelalter (1993). M. Bayless ,...
Tavern Reference library
Alexander Kazhdan
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
...began to punch him. The saint then drank a mug of first-quality wine, broke the cup over the head of one of the youths, and fled; the young men caught him, struck him, and dragged him back into the tavern (PG 111:648CD). The 10th-C. Book of the Eparch (19.4) prohibited kapeloi from opening their taverns on the days of Great Feasts “before the second hour of the day” (8:00 a.m.), and they were obliged to close at the second hour of the night (8:00 p.m.) “lest the frequenters of these taverns have the right of access thereto at night time.” In the early 14th...
Theatre, Medieval Reference library
Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages
...plays , which put the complex resources of dramatic art at the service of didacticism and frequently resorted to the subtle code of allegory . The common trait of these spectacles, sometimes gigantic, was that the actors were not professionals but amateurs, sometimes specialized like the Confraternities of the Passion . By contrast, farces were the job of professional entertainers, men and women , who moved around with a rudimentary material, but knew all the sources of laughter. Assemblies and feasts gave them occasion to play (sometimes even in...
Purim Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages
...Carnival could also include not only boisterousness but also brutality. See also blood libel accusation ; fools, feast of ; polemics, jewish (with christians) . Elliott Horowitz I. Abrahams , Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (1896). M. Boiteaux , ‘ Les Juifs dans le Carnaval de la Rome moderne (XV–XVIII siècles) ’, MEFRM 88 (1976), 744–87. N. Doniach , Purim, or the Feast of Esther (1933). F. Gregorovius , The Ghetto and the Jews of Rome , tr. M. Hadas (German original, 1935) (1948). M. Güdemann , ‘ Purim und Fastnacht ’, in Geschichte des...
Prometheus Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome
...found in folktales throughout the world, simultaneously a deceiver and a patron of invention. Prometheus attempts to deceive Zeus, presenting him with a supper of oxen bones wrapped in fat while reserving the best edible parts for the men who share the gods’ table. Not fooled, Zeus angrily banishes mortals forevermore from divine feasts and makes them offer sacrifice instead, a ritual symbol of divine superiority in contrast to human reliance on nourishment. As a consequence of Prometheus’ trick, Zeus also conceals fire from mankind, but later Prometheus...
Atheism Reference library
Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment
...text of Enlightenment atheism. Seek the first edition, with a “Discours Préliminaire” by Jacques-André Naigeon. Hunter, Michael , and David Wootton , eds. Atheism from the Reformation to the Enlightenment . Oxford, 1992. A feast of essays that, despite themselves, prove how rare authentic atheism actually was as an early-modern phenomenon. Kors, Alan Charles . D'Holbach's Coterie: An Enlightenment in Paris . Princeton, N.J., 1976. The author of this article offers a portrait of the salon of the celebrated atheist, arguing against the error of...
comedy (Greek), Old, Middle, and New Reference library
Kenneth James Dover, William Geoffrey Arnott, and Peter George McCarthy Brown
The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization (2 ed.)
...been two main types of such burlesque: straight travesty of a myth, with or without political innuendo, and parody of tragic (especially Euripides ’) versions. The aim was often to reinterpret a myth in contemporary terms; thus Heracles is asked to select a book from Linus’ library of classical authors (Alexis fr. 140 KA), and Pelops ( see olympia §1 ) complains about the meagre meals of Greece by contrast with the Persian king’s roast camel (Antiphanes fr. 172 KA). Popular also were riddles, long descriptions of food and feasting (often in...
