Clowning
in Christmas Celebrations through the Ages
By Bruce
“Charlie” Johnson, World Clown Association Historian
Although
many people today consider Christmas to be a secular celebration, its roots as a
religious holiday meant that it spread everywhere Christian missionaries
traveled making it one of the most observed holidays world wide.
Its importance in the church calendar resulted in elaborate celebrations
over the centuries. The use of humor
and clowning in those celebrations led to important innovations in the
development of clowning. It is a
time for all clowns to celebrate.
Feast
of Fools
By
the twelfth century, Feast Days were held by the Catholic Church on the twelve
days of Christmas, December 25 through January 6.
On each day a feast celebrated some aspect of Christ’s birth and
childhood. For example, January 6
celebrated the visit by the Wise Men. Some
of these days were given to minor clergy to conduct the church services, stage
processions through town, and collect gifts. The day the subdeacons were in
charge the celebration evolved into the Feast of Fools.
A subdeacon was elected Bishop of Fools to preside over the festivities.
The subdeacons were the least important church officials so the inversion of
status led to many satirical jabs at those normally in charge.
The Feast of Fools began in
France
and was celebrated in many
ways throughout
Europe
.
In
Beavais
,
France
, it was called asinara
festa (Feast of the Ass). It included a burlesque recreation of the Holy
Families flight to
Egypt
. A caparisoned donkey was
led at the front of a procession through town to the
Church
of
St. Etienne
. The donkey and its
followers were invited inside and a Mass was said. Instead of chanting the
traditional Latin responses to the Mass, the congregation brayed back,
"Hee-haw, hee-haw, hee-haw."
The
donkey inspired the most common item of apparel at the Feast of Fools, a peaked
hat with two donkey ears. (This hat
was adopted by court jesters.) Other apparel reflected the day's theme of status
inversion. For example, men dressed as women and lay people exchanged clothing
with the clergy.
The
lesser clergy violated taboos on this one officially sanctioned day of comedy.
They rang the church bells improperly and sang out of tune.
They used puddings, sausages, or old shoes as censors. Describing the
festival at an
Antibes
monastery, a writer said,
"The lay brothers, the cabbage-cutters, those who work in the kitchen,
occupy the places of the clergy in the church. They don the sacerdotal garments
reverse side out. They hold in their hands books turned upside down, and pretend
to read through spectacles in which bits of orange peel have been substituted
for glass."
One
theory is that this day of sanctioned inappropriate behavior preserved order by
serving as a relief valve. People
were not tempted to misbehave on the other 364 days because their desire was
satisfied during the Feast of Fools.
The
Feast was very popular among the minor clergy and the citizens of the cathedral
towns, but those being ridiculed didn't always enjoy it. Several
Popes tried unsuccessfully to suppress it. In some localities the clergy tried
to refuse to participate. In 1489, in Tournai the churchmen obtained a royal
decree from Charles VIII exempting them from participating in the feast.
(Tournai is part of modern
Belgium
.) In
1498, laymen kidnapped eight clergymen at Tournai, holding them hostage until
one of them volunteered to be Bishop of Fools. The church's protest to the local
government was unsuccessful because the town mayor was the leader of the
kidnappers. The resulting legal battle between the church and town culminated in
the Tournai Feast of Fools being officially abolished in 1500.
In
general, the Feast of Fools survived until the Protestant Reformation in 1517.
In some locations it was still occasionally celebrated into the 1600's.
When
the Feast of Fools was no longer sanctioned by the church it was transformed
into a secular celebration. In France, amateur fool clubs called societes
joyeuses (joyful societies), were created during the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. These societies held mock ceremonies in the tradition of the Feast of
Fools. (Some continued to use the
name Feast of Fools for their celebrations.) They
were the first organized comedy troupes. This
means the Feast of Fools is
part of the foundation for both secular and religious comedy.
The Feast of Fools was depicted in the Disney film titled “The
Hunchback of Notre Dame.”
Clown
Marionettes and Mystery Plays
The early
church had banned actors because of the vulgarity associated with
Roman
Theater
.
However the medieval church recognized the educational value of theater
and arts to “elevate the common people to knowledge and to show in some
palpable form the eternal truths.” They
believed that people needed to “see to understand, and understand to
believe.” This was particularly
true when the official language of the church was Latin, which the local
citizens did not speak. To get
around the ban on actors the church used string puppets to portray the Christmas
story. Our term Marionettes, which
means Little Mary, comes from these performances.
At first the
puppets were used to act out the Nativity story while it was read from the
Bible. (A modern version of this was
performed on the 1979 television special titled “John Denver and the Muppets:
A Christmas Together.”) Over the
centuries these puppet plays evolved to include other Bible stories and they
were performed at festivals year round. These
became known as Mystery or Miracle Plays. When
a story included a miracle, special effects were used to recreate it.
These were the first Christian magic illusions.
The church recognized the value of humor as an educational tool.
Little by little comic characters and scenes were introduced into the
puppet plays. The shepherds at the
nativity, Noah’s wife, demons, and sinners doomed for hell were turned into
comedy characters similar to clowns. Like
the Feast of Fools, these puppet plays reached the height of their development
in the fifteenth and sixteenth century. In
The Art of the Puppet, Bil
Baird describes a performance of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary at the
Church
of
St. James
at
Dieppe
in 1443.
This performance included Grimpesulais, a marionette clown, who is an
extraneous impudent character mocking the action of the play.
Once these characters were accepted, actors playing them were accepted by
the church. Plays originally
performed by puppets were taken over by actors and new plays were developed.
This is how clowning was introduced into the church and is the beginning
of Clown Ministry.
Gradually
the Mystery Plays were gathered into collections called Cycles.
Each Cycle was developed and performed in a specific town.
As they became larger and more elaborate they were moved outside.
The set for a
Mystery Play Cycle was a large open performance area, called the platea, and a
row of small temporary buildings, called the mansions.
Sometimes cloud cutouts would be placed on the roofs of nearby buildings
to hide the winches used to fly characters.
The
Wakefield
(aka Towneley) Cycle was a
series of 32 plays that began with the Creation and concluded with the Last
Judgment. It was first performed in
about 1450. One of the plays
was “The Second Shepherd’s Play,” performed by clowns.
It is perhaps the best known of the English Mystery Plays.
“The
Second Shepherd’s Play” is about three shepherds guarding their flock on
Christmas Eve. Mak, a known thief, joins them. He pretends to go to sleep. When
the other three actually fall asleep, he gets up, steals a lamb, takes it home,
and hides the lamb in a cradle. He returns to the field, and pretends to be
asleep again. When the shepherds wake they discover a lamb is missing.
Mak announces that he has had a dream that his wife had a baby and he had
better run home to check. The suspicious shepherds follow him. They search Mak's
home while his wife, Gill, rocks their baby (the lamb) in a cradle. Before the
shepherds leave they insist on seeing the child. They comment on how ugly the
child is, and gradually realize the "child" is actually their stolen
lamb. On their way back to the field, they encounter an angel who tells them of
Christ’s birth. The play concludes with the shepherds going to the stable to
take gifts to the Christ child.
There
is humor in the actual script, especially in the scene where Mak and Gill are
trying to defend their "child" from the comments of the Shepherds.
However the script is just the bare bones of the plot. The original clowns
fleshed out the story with humorous actions.
Although it is mainly a humorous play, it has a strong theological basis.
This five-hundred-year-old play is still used today to entertain
audiences and to present a gospel message. It is excellent source material for
Gospel Clown Ministry groups, and royalty free adaptations are available.
Some
Mystery Play performers reached too low for their humor and the plays eventually
became vulgar. This led to the
church banishing them in some locations. They
became secular in nature and were transformed into Morality Plays teaching
lessons about being a good person. They
were an important step in the development of clown type characters and in comedy
performances.
Pantomimes
About 300
years after the first production of “The Second Shepherd’s Play,” another
type of Christmas show was introduced that had a tremendous impact upon
clowning. That was the Christmas
Pantomime popular in the British Aisles. It
is my understanding that the Christmas Pantomime debuted each year on Boxing
Day, December 26. At that time
Pantomime did not have our current meaning of silent acting.
It meant actors portraying more than one character.
(In Greek “panto” means “all” and “mime” means
“imitate.”) The Christmas
Pantomime grew out of the early eighteenth-century rivalry between John Weaver
and John Rich, the performer/directors at two theaters near
London
.
Weaver and Rich introduced Commedia Del Arte characters into classic
fairy tales, legends, and literature. (Commedia
Del Arte was professional comedy shows involving stock characters.
It began in
Italy
and spread throughout
Europe
during the Renaissance.)
John Rich became famous for portraying Harlequin, a character that had
originated in the Commedia Del Arte. Rich’s
Harlequin was an acrobat, thief, practical joker, and a magician.
His spectacular shows included elaborate transformation scenes with the
entire set instantly changing into a new location.
During Rich’s 43-year career, Harlequin was the main character and
star. In his productions, Rich
introduced Pierrot and Whiteface clown as minor supporting characters played by
other actors.
Ten years after John Rich retired; Carol Delpini began performing as
Pierrot at the
Drury
Lane
Theater
.
He was the first Pantomime performer to become famous for playing what we
would recognize as a modern clown character in appearance.
Delpini developed a new Pantomime format.
It began with the dramatic story. Then
at a moment of crisis the original characters would be transformed into the
Commedia characters and an extended comic slapstick chase would conclude the
production. In the first half of the
show the principal actors wore oversized masks and breakaway outer costumes.
During the transformation they would drop their masks and outer costume
down trapdoors revealing their appearance as Commedia characters.
For example, in the 1781 production titled “Robinson Crusoe: or
Harlequin Friday,” Delpini played Robinson Crusoe in the dramatic part, and
then transformed into Pierrot for the comic scenes.
The duo role of Friday and Harlequin was played by Guiseppe Grimaldi,
Joseph’s father.
During Joseph Grimaldi’s childhood his father trained him to become a
Pantomime performer. He learned
dancing, acrobatics, and stage combat, particularly fencing.
He loved the trick transformations and would build model sets for scene
changes. The young Joseph Grimaldi was cast as sprites and animals, especially
cats and monkeys, in Christmas Pantomimes.
Joseph
Grimaldi’s first appearance as a clown was in the 1800 production of “Peter
Wilkins: or, The Flying World.” That
production is known for two innovations.
The first was that
James Byrne introduced a more elegant Harlequin character that was a gentleman.
This was exemplified by his skin-tight white silk body suit covered with
diamond-shaped silk patches. This is
the first time the costume we now associate with the character was worn.
Byrne’s characterization was no longer the rogue who drove the plot.
This allowed performers portraying other characters to assume the
dramatic function formerly filled by Harlequin.
Joseph Grimaldi took advantage of the opportunity and introduced his more
extravagant make up and costume design in that production.
Over the next few years his Whiteface clown evolved from Harlequin’s
victim into a clever rogue persecuting Harlequin and Columbine.
(Columbine was a female clown character developed in the Commedia Del
Arte.)
“Harlequin and Mother Goose; or, the Golden Egg” was the Christmas
Pantomime debuting in 1806. That
production established Joseph Grimaldi as a star and he repeated it several
times during his career. As Grimaldi
and Byrne became more popular other performers began copying them and the future
of clowning was changed.
The change was criticized. During
his career, Grimaldi was chastised for performing routines originated by John
Rich, and thus considered more appropriate for Harlequin than for Whiteface.
Grimaldi appeared in other types of performances during the year.
However, it was his Christmas Pantomimes and Easter Pantomimes that were
the most popular. Those productions
allowed him to develop his new style of Whiteface character making him the
Father of Modern Clowning.
The Christmas Pantomime continued to evolve during the past two centuries.
The Commedia Del Arte characters and the elaborate transformation scenes
have disappeared. However, a show
called a Pantomime remained an important part of celebrating Christmas in
Britain
.
It has been a major venue for clowns and comedians during the holiday
season. Charlie Cairoli was a
twentieth century clown known for his appearances in Pantomimes.
Some of the comedy bits developed in Christmas Pantomime shows have
become part of the general repertoire used by British clowns.
I have seen clowns perform Pantomime inspired bits at the two WCA
conventions in
England
, the WCA convention in
Scotland
, and a festival sponsored by
Clowns International.
Comedy and clown type characters have been a part of Christmas
celebrations for over 600 years. The
clowns contributed to the joy of the celebration.
In return the celebrations contributed to the development of clowning.
(This article originally appeared in the December 2009 issue of Clowning
Around, published by the World Clown Association. For more information on
the World Clown Association, go to World
Clown Association
Copyright 2009 by Bruce "Charlie" Johnson. All rights
reserved.
