Note 1362 — Chapter XVI · GUILD FOOLS AND COURT FOOLS

Cf. chs. xiii, xiv. The theatrales ludi of Pope Innocent III’s decree in 1207 probably refers only to the burlesque ‘offices’ of the feasts condemned; and even the terms used by the Theological Faculty in 1445—spectacula, ludi theatrales, personagiorum ludi—might mean no more, for at Troyes in the previous year the ‘jeu du sacre de leur arcevesque’ was called a ‘jeu de personnages,’ and this might have been a mere burlesque consecration. However, ‘jeu de personnages’ generally implies something distinctly dramatic (cf. ch. xxiv). It recurs in the Sens order of 1511. The Beauvais Daniel was possibly played at a Feast of Fools: at Tours a Prophetae and a miraculum appear under similar conditions; at Autun a Herod gave a name to the dominus festi. At Laon there were ‘mysteries’ in 1464 and 1465; by 1531 these had given way to ‘comedies.’ Farces were played at Tournai in 1498 and comedies at Lille in 1526.