In the beginning!!!!

Hi,
Being completely new to blogging, I've no idea what I've let myself in for.  I intend to use this Blog to talk about the various types of Medieval Entertainment that there was in the past (i.e. Medieval times) and the type of Medieval Entertainment that is available today.  I'm no historian, so this won't be full of boring history, hopefully it will be entertaining and perhaps even mildly educational.
My interest in this stems from the fact that I am a modern day jester - yes, that's me in the pic!!

I guess that I'll therefore start with a little about Jesters.....

A jester, joker, fool, or buffoon was a person employed to tell jokes and provide general entertainment - music, juggling, acrobatics or similar - typically by a European monarch. Jesters are stereotypically thought to have worn brightly colored clothes and eccentric hats in a motley pattern. Their hats were especially distinctive; made of cloth, they were floppy with three points, each of which had a jingle bell at the end. Originally, the jester's hat only had the two points to represent the donkey's ears.  The third, to represent the tail was added at a later date. Other things distinctive about the jester were his laughter and his mock sceptre, known as a bauble or marotte.
One of the lesser know fact about jesters is that they were not really clowns, but rather companions to the monarch.  Many were known for their wisdom and were asked to give advice. There were essentially two types of fool, those who were naturals - the half wit or bumpkin/village idiot and the learned fool who, not only entertained and gave advice, but was permitted to some extent to criticise their master, mistress or guests. It is even said, that Queen Elizabeth 1 rebuked one of her fools for being insufficiently severe with her. The Jester was even permitted to give news to the monarch that no-one else would dare to do - especially if the news was bad!!
There were many instances in the plays of William Shakespeare that the fool or jester appears.  In his plays, the fools are usually clever peasants or commoners that use their wits to outdo people of higher social standing.  In this sense they are very similar to the real fools, clowns and jesters of he time, but their characteristics are greatly heightened for theatrical effect.
Over the next few blogs, I'll try to give a little insight into some of the jesters from the Middle Ages that we do know something about.......
Thanks for reading...any comments greatly welcomed)
Chris