t to exemplify them is not within
the scope of this essay: what has been stated may assist the readers of
old plays to judge for themselves when they meet with such characters.

The practice of retaining fools can be distinctly traced from the
remotest times. They were to be found alike in the palace and the
brothel; the Pope had his fool, and the bawd hers; they excited the
mirth of kings and beggars; the hovel of the villain and the castle of
the baron were alike exhilarated by their jokes. With respect to the
antiquity of this custom in England, it appears to have existed even
during the period of our Saxon history, but we are certain of the fact
in the reign of William the Conqueror. Maitre Wace, an historian of that
time, has an account of the preservation of William's life, when Duke of
Normandy, by his fool, _Goles_; and, in Domesday book, mention is made
of _Berdin joculator regis_; and though this term sometimes denoted a
minstrel, evidence might be adduced to prove, that in this instance it
signified a buffoon.

The entertainment, fools were expected to afford, may be collected in
great variety from our old plays, especially from those of Shakespeare;
but, perhaps, a good idea may be formed of their general conduct from a
passage in a curious tract by Lodge, entitled, "Wit's Miserie," 1599,
quarto: "Immoderate and disordinate joy became incorporate in the bodie
of a jeaster; this fellow in person is comely, in apparell courtly, but
in behaviour a very ape, and no man; his studie is to coin bitter
jeasts, or to shew antique motions, or to sing baudie sonnets and
ballads; give him a little wine in his head, he is continually flearing
and making of mouthes; he laughs intemperately at every little occasion,
and dances about the house, leaps over tables, outskips men's heads,
trips up his companions' heeles, burns sack with a candle, and hath all
the feats of a lord of misrule in the countrie: feed him in his humour,
you shall have his heart; in mere kindness he will hug you in his armes,
kisse you on the cheeke, and rapping out an horrible oath, crie 'God's
soule, Tum, I love you, you knowe my poore heart, come to my chamber for
a pipe of tobacco, there lives not a man in this world that I more
honor.' In these ceremonies you shall know his courting, and it is a
speciall mark of him at table, he sits and makes faces: keep not this
fellow company, for in jingling with him, your wardropes shall be
wasted, your cred