NEWSLETTER WITH VARIOUS SCRAPS

 

 Above is a sacred clown from the Native American Pueblo culture in the South West. This costume and make up  is traditional for Hopi and Zuni people. 

SACRED CLOWNS

I mentioned them- in the spirit of the complexities of very different cultures also having very surprising similarities which is, I think, immensely cheering. In  western culture, the concept of the Fool, is I suppose broadly epitomised by Shakespeare's fools. (And of course, this happy supposition allows me to indulge my interest in Shakespeare). In King Lear and Twelfth Night, the Fool is a person who has a licence to behave in a way that is full of paradoxes, contradictions, challenges and highlights the folly of humans and their behaviour. The Fool has a licence to comment on and satirise the folly of his masters. While he must highlight "foolishness", he himself, is often full of melancholy. 

Shakespeare's earlier plays used an actor called Will Kemp who specialised in a broad and physical comedy which could be mocking and satirical as clowning often is. He was a talented acrobat and a dancer famous for his expertise in dancing jigs, who once Morris danced from Norwich to London. In 1599, he had fallen out with Shakespeare's company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men and resigned his shares and left. He had been a very popular performer and Shakespeare is almost certainly mocking him in Hamlet, when Hamlet says to the players ‘let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them’ as he was known as a great ab libber. There is no contemporaneous account  of the dispute, but there has certainly been a great deal of academic conjecture. Fun to speculate, but no way of ever knowing. 

To raise money when he left the company, he danced from Norwich to London. In fact, despite the pamphlet's catchy title which he had published to advertise his exploits, the journey actually took , I think twenty three days. Telling lies is often a typical Fool's act- because a  Fool's lie may contain far more truth than  a person who is not a fool speaking the truth.

Kemp was replaced by an actor called Robert Armin who developed a very different kind of Fool - not an amusing Jester/Clown but a character who comments on the folly of others with his wisdom and wit, as likely to be melancholy as comical and as powerful in a Tragedy as a Comedy.

Sacred Clowns are common across the indigenous people of North America. I have spent time in the South West and my interest in Sacred Clowns grew out of my interest in story telling. Some Scared Clown behaviour fits into  Trickster stories. In the South West tradition the trickster is Coyote who is often as innocent and uninhibited as a child, but can also illuminate the folly and pretentions of the people and punishes people who offend him. He is also capable of understanding complex meanings. There is a profoundly moving and wise story where Coyote's friend Eagle's wife dies and Coyote sets out with him determined to bring her back from the land of the dead only to learn and understand that the dead can never return to the living.

" In the days before the invaders came. . .we had clowns. Not clowns like you see now, with round red noses and baggy costumes. Our clowns wore all kinds of stuff. Anythin’ they felt like, they wore. And they didn’t just come out once in a while to act silly and make people laugh, our clowns were with us all the time, as important to the village as the chief, or the shaman, or the dancers, or the poets."

Anne Cameron from Daughters of the Copper Moon interviewing an old woman.

Nothing was sacred to a Sacred Clown although being a Sacred Clown was a spiritual calling. They (men and women could be Sacred Clowns) were social critics of the highest order. Their  mimicry and mockery exposed hypocrisy, stupidity, corruption and arrogance. Their portrayals of ridiculous behaviour showed the people their own foolishness and blind-spots. “A clown was like a newspaper, or a magazine, or one of those people who write an article to tell you if a book or a movie is worth botherin’ with. They made comment on everythin’, every day, all the time. If a clown thought that what the tribal council was gettin’ ready to do was foolish, why the clown would just show up at the council and imitate every move every one of the leaders made. Only the clown would imitate it in such a way every little wart on that person would show, every hole in their idea would suddenly look real big.” 

Anne Cameron again.

"Their behaviour was often shocking- including throwing urine on people they considered to have  socially transgressed (told you this stuff is riddled with paradoxes) or using nakedness to challenge hypocrisy. 

The Native people of the Plains called their Sacred Clowns Heyokha and they functioned both as a mirror and a teacher, using extreme behaviours to mirror others, and forcing them to examine their own doubts, fears, hatreds, and weaknesses. They have the power to heal emotional pain- a power that comes from the experience of shame. They sing of shameful events in their own  lives, beg for food, and live as clowns. They provoke laughter in distressing situations of despair, and  fear and chaos, and  when people are complacent  they make sure they keep them from taking themselves too seriously or believing they are more powerful and important than they are."

Here is a quote from a Wikipedia article "In addition, sacred clowns serve an important role in shaping tribal codes. Unbound by societal constraints, Heyokha are able to violate cultural taboos freely and thus critique established customs. Paradoxically, however, by violating these norms and taboos, they help to define the accepted boundaries, rules, and societal guidelines for ethical and moral behaviour. They are the only ones who can ask "Why?" about sensitive topics; they use satire to question the specialists and carriers of sacred knowledge or those in positions of power and authority."

"For people who are as poor as us, who have lost everything, who had to endure so much death and sadness, laughter is a precious gift. When we were dying like flies from white man's disease, when we were driven into reservations, when the government rations did not arrive and we were starving, watching the pranks and capers of Heyokha were a blessing."

John Fire Lame Deer

For people who are interested in learning more, I highly recommend a programme made by the comedian Stuart Lee for Radio 4 on Sacred Clowns which is on U Tube and has some fascinating interviews and pictures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOhonL79ilc

BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH

Here is a link to a 2020 article on Benjamin Zephaniah in the Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/07/benjamin-zephaniah-coppers-were-standing-on-my-back-and-i-thought-ok-im-going-to-die-here

And here is a link to his page on Bloodaxe Books. It is a good site which specialises in publishing poetry to showcase and encourage poets from a range of backgrounds and experiences.

CONSTANTINE CAVAFY

Kate has kindly provided the research below.

THE REAL SACK OF ROME

There were a number of sacks of Rome but the main one seems to have been by Alaric and his Visigoths on 24 August AD 410. There was a sack of Rome about 800 years earlier by the Gauls and later the Vandals had a go in 455.

Alaric laid siege to Rome 3 times from 408-410, demanding gold and silver and barbarian slaves. The siege was lifted twice after negotiations. On the third occasion one of the city gates was opened - either through treachery or want of food. The city was pillaged for 3 days, any and all movable goods were stolen, people were tortured to make them reveal the whereabouts of any treasure, or taken captive, some of these were later ransomed, some were sold into slavery, others raped and killed. Wikipedia, nevertheless, says that it was restrained by the standards of the age. The Visigoths then continued south.

The (Western) Emperor (Honorius) was not in Rome at the time of the siege and sack because he had moved his court to Ravenna in 402. However Alaric took his sister hostage, so I presume she was living in Rome.

(Taken from Wikipedia - there is masses more information there on the relationship between Alaric and Rome and on the sieges and the sack if anyone is interested.)

In other words it doesn't correspond with Cavafy's poem in any way.

Did Cavafy know his history?

He wrote a lot of historical poems and my edition of his poems gives footnotes to them, setting them in context and giving the sources for the incidents described. On the basis of that, he had certainly read widely.

For instance, the poem I read at the end, Nero's Term, which made everybody laugh - when I checked back I found the story about the oracle came from Suetonius's Life of Nero. 

(Suetonius was born in AD 69 a year after Nero died. He was secretary to the emperors Trajan and Hadrian and had access to the Imperial archives. His book The Twelve Caesars was published in AD 121.}

I understand from Kate that the group discussed Cavafy's role in Durrell's Alexandrine Quartet and Paul has sent me a document so that I may circulate it. Alas, his encouraging optimism which believes I may have mastered the PDF is misplaced. I improve but I never seem able to extrapolate. I will therefore make an attempt to circulate from my desk top. 

FINALLY

Kate's contribution leads me to remind everyone that the next big exhibition at the British Museum is on Nero.

I am choosing Wednesday's poem.

I hope everyone thrives.

Best Wishes,

Elizabeth