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jester

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jester

 

  3  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Jester  \Jest"er\,  n.  [Cf.  {Gestour}.] 
  1.  A  buffoon;  a  merry-andrew;  a  court  fool. 
 
  This  .  .  .  was  Yorick's  skull,  the  king's  jester. 
  --Shak. 
 
  Dressed  in  the  motley  garb  that  jesters  wear. 
  --Longfellow. 
 
  2.  A  person  addicted  to  jesting,  or  to  indulgence  in  light 
  and  amusing  talk. 
 
  He  ambled  up  and  down  With  shallow  jesters.  --Shak. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  jester 
  n  :  a  professional  clown  employed  to  to  entertain  a  king  or 
  nobleman  in  the  middle  ages  [syn:  {fool}] 
 
  From  THE  DEVIL'S  DICTIONARY  ((C)1911  Released  April  15  1993)  [devils]: 
 
  JESTER,  n.  An  officer  formerly  attached  to  a  king's  household,  whose 
  business  it  was  to  amuse  the  court  by  ludicrous  actions  and 
  utterances,  the  absurdity  being  attested  by  his  motley  costume.  The 
  king  himself  being  attired  with  dignity,  it  took  the  world  some 
  centuries  to  discover  that  his  own  conduct  and  decrees  were 
  sufficiently  ridiculous  for  the  amusement  not  only  of  his  court  but  of 
  all  mankind.  The  jester  was  commonly  called  a  fool,  but  the  poets  and 
  romancers  have  ever  delighted  to  represent  him  as  a  singularly  wise 
  and  witty  person.  In  the  circus  of  to-day  the  melancholy  ghost  of  the 
  court  fool  effects  the  dejection  of  humbler  audiences  with  the  same 
  jests  wherewith  in  life  he  gloomed  the  marble  hall,  panged  the 
  patrician  sense  of  humor  and  tapped  the  tank  of  royal  tears. 
 
  The  widow-queen  of  Portugal 
  Had  an  audacious  jester 
  Who  entered  the  confessional 
  Disguised,  and  there  confessed  her 
 
  "Father,"  she  said  "thine  ear  bend  down  -- 
  My  sins  are  more  than  scarlet: 
  I  love  my  fool  --  blaspheming  clown, 
  And  common,  base-born  varlet." 
 
  "Daughter,"  the  mimic  priest  replied, 
  "That  sin,  indeed,  is  awful: 
  The  church's  pardon  is  denied 
  To  love  that  is  unlawful. 
 
  "But  since  thy  stubborn  heart  will  be 
  For  him  forever  pleading, 
  Thou'dst  better  make  him  by  decree, 
  A  man  of  birth  and  breeding." 
 
  She  made  the  fool  a  duke,  in  hope 
  With  Heaven's  taboo  to  palter; 
  Then  told  a  priest,  who  told  the  Pope, 
  Who  damned  her  from  the  altar! 
  Barel  Dort




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