[_Bibliographical Note._--The best account of the _Sociétés joyeuses_ is that of L. Petit de Julleville, _Les Comédiens en France au Moyen Âge_ (1889). Much material is collected in the same writer’s _Répertoire du Théâtre comique en France au Moyen Âge_ (1886), and in several of the books given as authorities on the Feast of Fools (ch. xiii), especially those of Du Tilliot, Rigollot, Leber, and Grenier. Mme. Clément (née Hémery), _Histoire des Fêtes civiles et religieuses du Département du Nord_ (1832), may also be consulted. M. Petit de Julleville’s account of the _Sottie_ is supplemented by E. Picot, _La Sottie en France_, in _Romania_, vol. vii, and there is a good study of the fool-literature of the Renascence in C. H. Herford, _Literary Relations between England and Germany in the Sixteenth Century_ (1886). Amongst writers on the court fool are J. F. Dreux du Radier, _Histoire des Fous en Titre d’Office_, in _Récréations historiques_ (1768); C. F. Flögel, _Geschichte der Hofnarren_ (1789); F. Douce, _Clowns and Fools of Shakespeare_ in _Variorum Shakespeare_ (1821), xxi. 420, and _Illustrations of Shakespeare_ (1839); C. Leber in Rigollot, xl; J. Doran, _History of Court Fools_ (1858); A. F. Nick, _Hof-und Volksnarren_ (1861); P. Lacroix (le bibliophile Jacob), _Dissertation sur les Fous des Rois de France_; A. Canel, _Recherches historiques sur les Fous des Rois de France_ (1873); A. Gazeau, _Les Bouffons_ (1882); P. Moreau, _Fous et Bouffons_ (1885). Much of this literature fails to distinguish between the _stultus_ and the _ioculator regis_ (ch. iii). There is an admirable essay by L. Johnson on _The Fools of Shakespeare_ in _Noctes Shakesperianae_ (1887).]