Introduction. Unearthing Yoricks: Literary Archeology and the Ideologies of Early English Clowning

Summary

AS THIS introduction's invocation of Hamlet's discovery of the jester Yorick's skull obliquely hints, this book attempts a kind of literary archeology. Unearthing major, however largely obscured, clown traditions of the late medieval period through the Renaissance, it aims to recover some understanding of their former import. Its focus is how theatrical clowns came to carry ideological significance and then, finally, to have it stripped from them, sometimes violently. By the close of the Renaissance, the famed “license” associated with fooling, whether in the context of the court fool or the clown in the drama, would no longer be countenanced, for reasons both political and aesthetic. This study, then, attempts to reclaim and thereby revalue an ideological dimension of late medieval, Tudor, and Stuart English comedy that has remained unacknowledged by either the critical tradition or recent scholarship. In particular, it aims to bring to light clowns' roles in a tradition of early religious and political theatrical satire. In so doing, the project not only aims to recover a sense of the power of theatrical satire in the early English theatrical tradition but also to suggest some of its long-term cultural impact. When we examine clowns in this light, a rich history of underlying traditions, tactics, and conventions emerges, as do the stakes involved in changing aesthetic tastes. This work, in short, offers a significant rethinking of early English clown traditions and their impact on their culture.