248 POPULAR BELIEFS. 



comic and serious, which became mysteries and farces when they had been set 

 to rhyme by a poet. (See below, chapter on the Theatre.) 



There was a general effort made, moreover, to form private societies for 

 preserving and perpetuating the traditions of the Feast of Buffoons. The 

 brothers of the Passion, whom Charles VI. allowed to settle in Paris (1402), 

 and to represent the mysteries in a room at the Trinity Hospital, were, in the 

 origin, members of the Church and pious persons who were desirous of letting 

 , religion benefit by the unbridled passion for spectacles and masquerades 

 which the Feast of the Buffoons had spread amongst the clergy and the 

 population. At first the ecclesiastical authorities encouraged these plays, as 

 being more edifying than those of the Pope of the Buffoons and the Bishop of 

 the Innocents. The lawyers, advocates, procureurs, and clerks of the Basoche, 

 who remembered the good times of the " Liberty of December," resolved to 

 offer an asylum to the Folic, when it was condemned by and banished from 

 the Church. They created the kingdom of Sots and the empire of Fools, 

 electing a prince, whom they crowned with a green cap with donkey's ears, 

 under the name of the Mere Sotte. The principal object of this new institu- 

 tion was the representation of farces or satires upon the people in authority. 



Amongst the provincial societies which carried on the traditions of the 

 Feast of the Buffoons must be mentioned, first of all, that of the Mere Folk de 

 Dijon (see Fig. 176), which Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, himself 

 founded in 1454, for the sole purpose of putting an end to the scandalous 

 orgies which took place in the churches at the festivals of Christmas, 

 Epiphany, and Rogation Sundays. This society, the practices of which were 

 in complete harmony with the customs of that wine-growing country, con- 

 sisted of more than five hundred persons of all ranks, and they were divided 

 into two parties, one of infantry (see Fig. 177), the other of cavalry, all of 

 whom wore the fool's cap and liveries ; that is to say, costumes which were a 

 motley mixture of yellow, red, or green. The leader of the band, named 

 Mere Folk, passed reviews of his army, presided over a mock tribunal, and 

 pronounced mock judgments, which his procurator-fiscal green undertook to put 

 into execution. These trials and pleadings, cavalcades and solemn assemblies, 

 brought into relief all the types and attributes of Folly, which have disap- 

 peared without leaving the world any wiser ; but the ancient Feast of the 

 Buffoons, when driven from under the vaulted roof of the temple, continued 

 to inspire songs and farces which betokened the birth of some comedy, 



