Tom Skelton—A Seventeenth-century Jester

Summary

In the Elizabethan theatre, the stage fool, or clown, had an obvious, if somewhat complex, dramatic function. But in almost every other respect, study of this character bristles with difficulty. The connection between the fool and the Vice of the medieval drama remains obscure, and it is still doubtful how far the fool, the jester and the clown were distinct figures. Even if this problem is by-passed and all are treated as one, for the historian of the theatre the relationship of the court, or domestic, jester to the stage clown, the distinction between the stage fool and the court fool represented on the stage, and, not least of all, the costuming of the character in these various modes still remain open questions. To a large extent these problems arise from the fragmentary nature of the evidence and any further information which can be presented is of value.