Next Saturday,
January 18th, we have a Jester Party. The idea for this theme came when I discovered
that on January 18th 1913, Danny Kaye was born.
Danny Kaye
(born David Daniel Kaminsky;
Kaye
starred in 17 movies, notably The Kid from Brooklyn (1946), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
(1947), The Inspector General (1949), Hans Christian Andersen (1952), White
Christmas (1954), and The Court Jester (1956). His films were popular,
especially his bravura performances of patter songs and favorites such as
"Inchworm" and "The Ugly Duckling". He was the first
ambassador-at-large of UNICEF in 1954 and received the French Legion of Honor
in 1986 for his years of work with the organization.
The Court Jester
is a 1956 musical-comedy film starring Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil
Rathbone, Angela Lansbury and Cecil Parker. The movie was co-written,
co-directed, and co-produced by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama. The film was
released by Paramount Pictures in Technicolor and in the VistaVision widescreen
format.
Danny Kaye
received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture Actor -
Comedy/Musical.
Made for a cost
of $4 million in the fall of 1955, it was the most expensive comedy film
produced at the time. The motion picture bombed at the box-office on its
release, bringing in only $2.2 million in receipts the following winter and
spring of 1956. Since then, it has become a television matinee favorite. The
film contains the famous exchange: "The pellet with the poison's in the
vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is
true!" (mainly between Kaye and Mildred Natwick as Griselda).
In 2000, The
Court Jester was listed at #98 on the American Film Institute's list of 100
Years... 100 Laughs. In 2004, The Court Jester was selected for preservation in
the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally,
historically, or aesthetically significant."
A jester was a
historical entertainer either employed to entertain a ruler or other nobility
in medieval or Tudor times or was an itinerant performer who entertained common
folk at fairs and markets. With the resurgent interest in historical
re-enactment and living history jesters have now become a common sight at
modern medieval themed events. Jesters in medieval times are often thought to
have worn brightly coloured clothes and eccentric hats in a motley pattern and
their modern counterparts usually mimic this costume. In medieval times jesters
entertained with a wide variety of skills which could include songs, music,
storytelling, acrobatics, juggling and magic. Much of the entertainment was
performed in a comic style and many jesters made contemporary jokes in word or
song about people or events well known to their audiences.
Etymology: The
modern use of the word "jester" did not come into use until the
mid-16th century during Tudor times. Before this time jesters were known by
many different terms such as: "gestour" or "jestour",
"fol", "disour", and "bourder". These earlier
terms described entertainers who differed in their skills and performances but
who all shared many similarities in their role as comedic performers for their
audiences.
The jester as a
symbol
The root of the
word "fool" is from the Latin follis, which means "bag of
wind" or that which contains air or breath.
Fool in Tarot
In Tarot,
"The Fool" is the first card of the Major Arcana. The tarot depiction
of the Fool includes a man (or less often, a woman) juggling unconcernedly or
otherwise distracted, with a dog (sometimes cat) at his heels. The fool is in
the act of unknowingly walking off the edge of a cliff, precipice or other high
place. Another Tarot character is Death. In the Middle Ages, Death is often
shown in Jester's garb because "The last laugh is reserved for
death." Also, Death humbles everyone just as jesters make fun of everyone
regardless of standing.
Fool in
literature
In literature,
the jester is symbolic of common sense and of honesty, notably in King Lear,
the court jester is a character used for insight and advice on the part of the
monarch, taking advantage of his license to mock and speak freely to dispense
frank observations and highlight the folly of his monarch. This presents a
clashing irony as a "greater" man could dispense the same advice and
find himself being detained in the dungeons or even executed. Only as the
lowliest member of the court can the jester be the monarch's most useful
adviser.
Author Alan
Gordon also writes about jesters as advisers to the king, who actually make up
a super-secret spy ring that try to keep peace and control the leaders of
different countries. The Fool's Guild of these novels is portrayed as a mockery
to the church, and they refer to Jesus Christ as "Their Savior, The First
Fool."
Script for a
Jester's Tear is the debut album by the neo-progressive rock band Marillion, released in 1983. It reached number seven on the UK album chart and stayed on the chart for 31 weeks, the second longest chart residency of a Marillion album.
The single
released before the album was "Market Square Heroes", with the double
B-sides "Three Boats Down from the Candy" and the 17-minute epic
"Grendel".
"He Knows
You Know" and "Garden Party" were also released as singles, and
became UK Top 40 hits. This is the only Marillion album to feature Mick
Pointer, the founding and current drummer for Arena.
MARILLION - Script
for a Jester's Tear lyrics
So here I am once
more
In the playground
of the broken hearts
One more
experience, one more entry in a diary, self-penned
Yet another
emotional suicide
Overdosed on
sentiment and pride
Too late to say I
love you
Too late to
restage the play
Abandoning the
relics in my playground of yesterday
I'm losing on the
swings
I'm losing on the
roundabouts
I'm losing on the
swings
I'm losing on the
roundabouts
Too much, too
soon, too far to go, too late to play
The game is over,
the game is over
So here I am once
more
In the playground
of the broken hearts
I'm losing on the
swings
I'm losing on the
roundabouts
The game is over
Yet another
emotional suicide
Overdosed on
sentiment and pride
I'm losing on the
swings
I'm losing on the
roundabouts, roundabouts, the game is over
Too late to say I
love you
Too late to
restage the play
The game is over
I act the role in
classic style
Of a martyr
carved with twisted smile
To bleed the
lyric for this song
To write the
rites to right my wrongs
An epitaph to a
broken dream
To exercise this
silent scream
A scream that's
born from sorrow
I never did write
that lovesong
The words just
never seemed to flow
Now sad in
reflection did I gaze through perfection
And examine the
shadows on the other side of morning
And examine the
shadows on the other side of morning
Promised wedding
now a wake
Promised wedding
now a wake, awake
The fool escaped
from paradise
Will look over
his shoulder and cry
Sit and chew on
daffodils and struggle to answer "Why?"
As you grow up
and leave the playground
Where you kissed
your prince and found your frog
Remember the
jester that showed you tears, the script for tears
So I'll hold our
peace forever when you wear your bridal gown
In the silence of
my shame the mute that sang the sirens' song
Has gone solo in
the game
I've gone solo in
the game, but the game is over
Can you still say
you love me
Can you still say
you love me
Can you still say
that you love me
Do you love me
Do you love me
Do you love me
Do you love me,
the jester's tear
Can you still say
you love me
Can you still say
you love me
Can you still say
that you love me?
The jester's
tear, the jester's tear
Do you love me
No comments:
Post a Comment