The Lord of Misrule

Jesse Walker | January 1, 2007

Happy Feast of Fools, everyone:

During the Roman Saturnalia all class distinctions were abolished, with slaves and their masters switching roles, and laws that normally governed sensible behavior virtually suspended.

In medieval times, most Europeans adopted the Roman taste for a good time by electing a Lord of Misrule, or King of Fools. This harlequin king went by many names: King of the Bean in England, the Abbot of Unreason in Scotland, the Abbe de la Malgouveme in France. All had the power to call people to disorder. Cross dressing, bawdy songs, drinking to excess, and gambling on the church altar were only a few of the wanton acts reported.

In some places the Festival of the Ass was commemorated. A young girl with babe in arms entered a church riding an ass or donkey. During the mock services, prayer responses that would have normally included an 'amen' were substituted by a hearty 'hee-haw'.

Saturnalia took place from December 17 to December 23, with some variation in different periods of Roman history. There never was a standardized date for the medieval celebrations. Even Boxing Day carries a ghost of the old carnivals, or so I gathered from one of the later, lamer episodes of M*A*S*H. But as the Catholic Encyclopedia notes, the festivities tended to take place "on or about the feast of the Circumcision" -- that is, January 1. Its most famous American descendant, the Mummers Parade in Philadelphia, takes place on that same day, and so it is today that we'll mark it on this blog.

Scholars still debate whether the carnivals served as a safety valve, and thus ultimately undergirded the social hierarchy, or if they were something more revolutionary -- in Bakhtin's words, a liberatory "second world and a second life outside officialdom." The two positions are not mutually exclusive, and I doubt that there's a single answer to the question. I should note, though, that the Church eventually cracked down on the celebrations. Clearly, not everyone in the establishment felt that order was being reinforced.

I'll close with two quotes from James Frazer's The Golden Bough. One describes life during Saturnalia, when

masters actually changed places with their slaves and waited on them at table; and not till the serf had done eating and drinking was the board cleared and dinner set for his master. So far was this inversion of ranks carried, that each household became for a time a mimic republic in which the high offices of state were discharged by the slaves, who gave their orders and laid down the law as if they were indeed invested with all the dignity of the consulship, the praetorship, and the bench. Like the pale reflection of power thus accorded to bondsmen at the Saturnalia was the mock kingship for which freemen cast lots at the same season. The person on whom the lot fell enjoyed the title of king, and issued commands of a playful and ludicrous nature to his temporary subjects. One of them he might order to mix the wine, another to drink, another to sing, another to dance, another to speak in his own dispraise, another to carry a flute-girl on his back round the house.

The other recounts a rather forceful restoration of the ancien regime:

Roman soldiers at Durostorum in Lower Moesia celebrated the Saturnalia year by year in the following manner. Thirty days before the festival they chose by lot from amongst themselves a young and handsome man, who was then clothed in royal attire to resemble Saturn. Thus arrayed and attended by a multitude of soldiers he went about in public with full license to indulge his passions and to taste of every pleasure, however base and shameful. But if his reign was merry, it was short and ended tragically; for when the thirty days were up and the festival of Saturn had come, he cut his own throat on the altar of the god whom he personated.

And so the world is turned rightside-up again. Enjoy your holiday. You'll be back at work tomorrow.

Comments

edna|1.1.07 @ 3:49PM|#

Scholars still debate whether the carnivals served as a safety valve, and thus ultimately undergirded the social hierarchy

carnival!

joy be with you, friend. peace and contentment, they are the gifts of landru.

Mike Laursen|1.1.07 @ 3:54PM|#

Not that different really from the long tradition in American culture of sinning on Saturday night and repenting on Sunday morning.

|1.1.07 @ 4:54PM|#

What if your real leader is a King of Fools? It seems less funny then.

Wirkman Virkkala|1.1.07 @ 5:10PM|#

A real King of Fools is indeed scary; that is, when the real ruler is a fool. But, thankfully, there's no inversion of hierarchy. He comes from Money. And Power. He is the Fool of the Upper Crust, and is there as that class's mockery to us, the lower orders. He was selected as the GOP's analog to the Democracy's Clinton. Sex appeal. Lack of virtue. Cockiness. "But he's ours," the Upper Crusters of the GOP snickered, and put him before the voters, and enough voters bought in to steal the election for the Fool.

Still, it's probably funnier than a Complete Fool from the Lower Order. That's all we need, a buffoon from the Democracy.

|1.1.07 @ 6:21PM|#

I thought the headline meant you were going to discuss our Parliament and your Congress.

I do like the part about slitting their own throats after 30 days, though.

|1.1.07 @ 6:57PM|#

joy be with you, friend. peace and contentment, they are the gifts of landru.

Ah, for that, I give you this and this.

|1.1.07 @ 6:59PM|#

edna:

I hate to sound like a nitpicking Trekkie, but I think you mean "Festival!"

We'll discuss it before the Red Hour.

edna|1.1.07 @ 7:16PM|#

'festival' was exactly what mr. walker posited in the selection i quoted, thus the obvious paraphrase. nitpicking trekkies. sheesh. there's a fundamentalist streak to all you guys...

happy new year, mr mckenzie!

|1.1.07 @ 8:12PM|#

"Malgouveme"

Isn't it just like those irritating French to name theirs something unpronounceable?

All this makes me want to burst into singing the censored verses of "Louie, Louie."

Where's Rick Santorum when you really need him?

M|1.2.07 @ 5:14AM|#

For a magazine called Reason...

|1.2.07 @ 11:08AM|#

Io, Saturnalia!

I hope everyone had a very merry Saturnalia and a happy Sol Invictus.

For those of you in Gaul and Britannia, have a festive Yule.