Note 1338 — Chapter XVI · GUILD FOOLS AND COURT FOOLS
Reading edition
The term cornard seems to be derived from the ‘cornes’ of the traditional fool headdress. Leber, ix. 353, reprints from the Mercure de France for April, 1725, an account of a procession made by the abbas cornardorum at Evreux mounted upon an ass, which directly recalls the Feast of Fools. A macaronic chanson used on the occasion of one of these processions is preserved:
‘De asino bono nostro, Meliori et optimo, Debemus faire fête. En revenant de Gravignariâ, Un gros chardon reperit in viâ; Il lui coupa la tête. Vir monachus, in mense Iulio, Egressus est e monasterio, C’est dom de la Bucaille. Egressus est sine licentiâ, Pour aller voir donna Venissia, Et faire la ripaille.’
Research has identified Dom de la Bucaille and Donna Venissia as respectively a prior of St. Taurin, and a prioress of St. Saviour’s, in Evreux.