Online Encyclopedia
Make a correction
Your email address will not appear on the site. Note, comments may take some time to be approved.
Back to article:
CLOWN (derived by Fuller, in his Worthies, from Lat. colones, a husbandman; but apparently connected with " clod " and with similar forms in Teutonic and Scandinavian languages)
Your email:
Article name:
Article content:
CLOWN (derived by Fuller, in his Worthies, from Lat. colones, a husbandman; but apparently connected with " clod " and with similar forms in Teutonic and Scandinavian languages), a rustic, boorish person; the comic character in English panto-mime, always dressed in baggy costume, with face whitened and eccentrically painted, and a tufted wig. The character probably descends from representations of the devil in medieval miracle-plays, developed partly through the stage rustics and partly through the foolsor jesters (also called clowns) of the Elizabethan drama. The whitened face and baggy costume indicate a connexion also with the continental Pierrot. The prominence of the clown in pantomime (q.v.) is a comparatively modern development as compared with that of Harlequin.