'Historian and actress Sandra Billington takes us on an entertaining, illuminating and extremely informative journey. This unique book is essential reading for all serious fools and clowns.' Mike Leigh Who is the Fool and what does he mean to us? Pre-1900 scholars thought him a Renaissance fashion, a continental import of note in the British Isles only between 1486 and the 1630s, per his appearances in Shakespeare. But, as Sandra Billington shows in this superb study, the Fool has been with us far longer, and has worn many guises: village idiot and sophisticated comedian, embodiment of Satan and God's own jester.

The Concept of the Goddess explores the function and nature of goddesses and their cults in many cultures, including:
* Celtic
* Roman
* Norse
* Caucasian
* Japanese traditions.
The contributors explore the reasons for the existence of so many goddesses in the mythology of patriarchal societies and show that goddesses have also assumed more masculine roles, with war, hunting and sovereignty being equally important aspects of their cults.

eBook available with sample pages: HB:0415144213 EB:0203456386

This volume is a study of the female aspect of religion both in past and present mythologies. It explores the function and nature of goddesses and their cults in many cultures, including Celtic, Roman, Norse, Caucasian and Japanese traditions. The contributors explore the reasons for the existence of so many goddesses in the mythological traditions of largely patriarchal societies. They demonstrate how, in many myths, the female deity is seen as more ambivalent than her male counterparts, curing and cursing at whim. They show goddesses do not play primarily "feminine" roles in myths; war, hunting and sovereignty being equally important aspects of their cults.

This book is based on fresh and original research from archives in France and the Low Countries, concerning customs and beliefs practised around the midsummer solstice. The information has never previously been considered and it reveals a festive treatment of divisiveness, which might also be politically engaged. The book shows how in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries these traditions were not solely observed by the lower classes. A study of texts throughout the Middle Ages shows that the significance of St John's Day was a valued source for some major writers, and it can be argued that it was even the rationale for works such as Chretien's Yvain, and the anonymous Perlesvaus. The midsummer customs also appear in the civic records of Leuven and Metz, in periods where the city authorities were strong enough to break free of feudal controls. Their civic freedom was expressed at the Feast of the Baptist's Nativity, and this appropriation by the bourgeoisie informs the romance, Galeran. The rationale of Midsummer is to examine the disparate, but interlinked uses of the customs, and to bring to the awareness of scholars festive influences current in Europe before the better known influence of Carnival; also to discuss their seminal importance for early fiction and for the theatre. The book further reveals that pre-Christian belief in Chance / Fortune was supported by the phenomenon of the Solstice and that John the Baptist's Nativity, placed on 24 June, provided a way for Christian Fathers to allow for this, safely. Sandra Billington is a Reader at the University of Glasgow.]

King-led outlaw defiance, riotous lords of misrule, proud midsummer mock kings, and stately Inns-of-Court princes: in diverse ways all were reflections of the dominant social order in the Medieval and Tudor periods and, as this book shows, all influenced the writings of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Mock Kings considers kingship in the light of contemporary accounts of elected kings in outlaw and rebel groups, and compares them with the phenomenon of festive mock kings. The result is a complex picture of interrelation between festive and more serious opposition to the dominant order, as well as the discovery of a midsummer mock-king play tradition. The second part of the book considers the professional theatre from the late 1580s to the mid-Jacobean period, and demonstrates that mock-king patterns, found in less literary contexts, form the structure of many scripted plays. The popularity of some of the minor dramas is understood for the first time when their festive patterns are identified and, by contrast, Shakespeare's genius in transforming inherited structures into complex works of art is thrown into relief. The book shows that serious reflection on the nature of kingship was maintained throughout Renaissance drama.