Was being a jester a hard job? How much did they get paid?
They were the only ones allowed to call the king a cunt
>>722462
>How much did they get paid?
I assume people like that back in the day they just got food, housing and the protection that comes with living in a castle.
Usually they were autists and their lives were short.
>>723530
>Americans are retarded enough to believe Cartoon Network is a good source of historical knowledge
to answer your question OP jesters were basically advisors and could even shittalk the king if they veiled it in a joke
>>722462
Looking at this guy's expression I'm pretty sure he wasn't satisfied with his pay check.
>>723582
No, he was sad that Poland lost Smolensk.
>>723999
Well, now that's a shame.
>>723582
It's Stanczyk (real name Stanislaw Gaska). Real, but almost mythical person in Polish history, a jester who was famed for his wit, wisdom and piercing intellect, sharply critical of politicians around him.
In this painting, he's the only person on the royal ball that is moved by a message that a fortress of Smolensk was lost to the Russians. In the background you can see happy courtiers, don't giving a fuck about the collapse of the eastern border. The jester is the only person who cares about his country.
>>722462
>How much did they get paid?
Food, lodging and immunity. Aside from that they were sometimes given various gifts from royals and other nobles if they enjoyed his work.
>>724020
Fuck man I never knew the story behind this painting, now I'm sad.
>>724020
That was actually really interesting thank you, I've seen the painting a fair few times
>>724020
>>724020
>>722462
No one knows what it's like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes
And no one knows what it's like
To be hated
To be faded
to telling only lies
>>724377
Hah, that's funny cause both these characters are Polish!
>>724396
Isn't that Limp Bizkit? Great band. I love Fred Durst.
>>723577
yeah, it's a good gig to be the king's paid shit talker
>>722462
depends. from what I know, some jesters were the ones who were wittier, but then there were the kings natural 'fools', which were kind of disturbing.. they were basically borderline retarded people that were kept around for entertainment. there were of course the witty ones which we associate with jesters, like the one implied in your painting.
>>726371
Exactly.
Being a jester could be a real plum gig in the right court, but in some courts it was a nightmare where your tongue could slit your throat at any instant.
We have to remember how many countries and kingdoms have been run by absolute stark-raving lunatics. If not the king, then one of the king's "advisers" and remember sometimes the adviser holds all the real authority and the king has none.
Every situation was different and every "jester" was as well. Unfortunately I think the enormous effect that jesters had on History is almost entirely unrecorded.
Most of History is unrecorded, you have to account for that huge gap in knowledge in all your calculations. Too many Historians and "History fans" like to go around pretending unrecorded History simply doesn't exist and shouldn't be speculated about by even the most educated guessers.
>>726371
>they were basically borderline retarded people that were kept around for entertainment.
Furthermore to expand on this point, look up the term: Comprachicos
Here is the best write-up of exactly what they were:
http://www.slideshare.net/crdixon/aynrandthecomprachicos
>"The comprachicos (child buyers) were strange and hideous nomads in the 17th century. They made children into sideshow freaks. To succeed in producing a freak one must get hold of him early; a dwarf must be started when he is small. They stunted growth, they mangled features. It was an art/science of inverted orthopedics. Where nature had put a straight glance, this art put a squint. Where nature had put harmony, they put deformity and imperfection. The child was not aware of the mutilation he had suffered. This horrible surgery left traces on his face, not in his mind. During the operation the little patient was unconscious by means of a stupefying magic powder.
>In China since time immemorial, they have achieved refinement in a special art and industry: the molding of living man. One takes a child two or three years old and puts them into a grotesquely shaped porcelain vase. It is without cover or bottom, so the head and feet protrude. In the daytime the vase is upright, at night it is laid down so the child can sleep. Thus the child slowly fills the contours of the vase with compressed flesh and twisted bones. This bottled development continues for several years. At a certain point, it becomes an irreparable monster. Then the vase is broken and one has a man in the shape of a pot."
>>726568
Well fuck...
>>724020
Fuck
>>722462
Dream job desu
>>722462
Reminder that courtesans > jesters
>>724430
Kek
>>726568
>Then the vase is broken and one has a man in the shape of a pot
This is actually where we get the word pothead from.
>>726532
why bother with history when the holohoax is taken as a fact by the majority?
>>726568
Folklore,
also nice way to lure me into reading some Ayn Rand
>>724020
I assumed he was just depressed because he had to wear a degrading outfit, felt like that when I worked at McDonalds
>>726568
I read that comic.
>>723577
This. An unintentional relic of this are Shakespear's plays, where the jester or whoever plays a similar role at many times are the ones with the best wits and know what's going on.
>>722462
>That painting
The jester is the only one at the royal ball who is visibly troubled after the capture of smolensk by the Russians.
Depressing, man.
>>724020
>>730592
Stańczyk(the jester) appeared on different Matejko painting(Prussian Homage).
>Below the king sits Stańczyk. His worried face shows doubt that the homage will mean victory in the long run, and he is making a gesture to repel bad luck.
>>730605
Also, wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_Homage_(painting)
Gilbert and Sullivan's opera "The Yeomen of the Guard" has a jester character. At one point he sings about his line of work. It's not necessarily a valid source, but it's still an interesting and funny take on this figure.
Oh! a private buffoon is a light-hearted loon,
If you listen to popular rumour;
From the morn to the night he's so joyous and bright,
And he bubbles with wit and good humour!
He's so quaint and so terse,
Both in prose and in verse;
Yet though people forgive his transgression,
There are one or two rules that all family fools
Must observe, if they love their profession.
There are one or two rules,
Half-a-dozen, maybe,
That all family fools,
Of whatever degree,
Must observe if they love their profession.
If you wish to succeed as a jester, you'll need
To consider each person's auricular:
What is all right for B would quite scandalize C
(For C is so very particular);
And D may be dull, and E's very thick skull
Is as empty of brains as a ladle;
While F is F sharp, and will cry with a carp,
That he's known your best joke from his cradle!
When your humour they flout,
You can't let yourself go;
And it does put you out
When a person says, "Oh!
I have known that old joke from my cradle!"
If your master is surly, from getting up early
(And tempers are short in the morning),
An inopportune joke is enough to provoke
Him to give you, at once, a month's warning.
Then if you refrain, he is at you again,
For he likes to get value for money:
He'll ask then and there, with an insolent stare,
"If you know that you're paid to be funny?"
It adds to the tasks
Of a merry-man's place,
When your principal asks,
With a scowl on his face,
If you know that you're paid to be funny?
cont'd
>>730683
Comes a Bishop, maybe, or a solemn D. D. —
Oh, beware of his anger provoking!
Better not pull his hair —
Don't stick pins in his chair;
He don't understand practical joking.
If the jests that you crack have an orthodox smack,
You may get a bland smile from these sages;
But should they, by chance, be imported from France,
Half-a-crown is stopped out of your wages!
It's a general rule,
Though your zeal it may quench,
If the Family Fool
Tells a joke that's too French,
Half-a-crown is stopped out of his wages!
Though your head it may rack with a bilious attack,
And your senses with toothache you're losing,
Don't be mopy and flat — they don't fine you for that
If you're properly quaint and amusing!
Though your wife ran away with a soldier that day,
And took with her your trifle of money;
Bless your heart, they don't mind —
They're exceedingly kind —
They don't blame you — as long as you're funny!
It's a comfort to feel
If your partner should flit,
Though you suffer a deal,
They don't mind it a bit —
They don't blame you — so long as you're funny!
>>724396
>faded
Patchface > Moonboy > Butterbumps > Shagwell
>>724020
wow
thats a whole bunch of shit i literally dont give a fuck about
cant believe people are actually feeling for this bullshit
fucking faggots
>>722462
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_the_Farter
>>723577
What are you talking about?
>>724020
Well when you put it like that, that fucking sucks
>>731824
Yea it's really strange that people care about something related to the humanities on a humanities board, isn't it?
>>722462
Is that Fredo?
>>733652
>falling for that genuine 1/10 b9-1
Wew lad
![397[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/lW8lWMV.jpg "397[1].jpg")
>>733671
>>726568
Jesus Christ, how horrifying
Zerco the jester sounds like he had a good life, for someone with his... Appearance.
>>725721
>Jobs didn't exist
Lolwut
>>726532
>We have to remember how many countries and kingdoms have been run by absolute stark-raving lunatics.
How many?
