Madame d'Or | |
---|---|
Died | after 1429 |
Occupation | Court jester |
Known for | "very graceful fool" |
Madame d'Or (d. after 1429), was a French jester. The chronicler St Remy described her as a "moult gracieuse folle" (in English, something like "very graceful fool"). [1]
In 1429 Madame d'Or performed at the inauguration of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Bruges, Belgium. [2] Simeon Luce described her as "a dwarf no higher than a boot" and "gymnast of incomparable beauty, nimbleness, and athletic vigor" as related in Andrew Lang's biography of Joan of Arc. [3]
The Mitolo winery in the Australian wine region of McLaren Vale named a bottle of wine for Madame d'Or in 2013. [4]
A jester, also known as joker, court jester, or fool, was a member of the household of a nobleman or a monarch employed to entertain guests during royal court. Jesters were also traveling performers who entertained common folk at fairs and town markets, and the discipline continues into the modern day, where jesters perform at historical-themed events.
Andrew Lang was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him.
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is a 1964 musical romantic drama film written and directed by Jacques Demy, with music by Michel Legrand. Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo star as two young lovers in the French city of Cherbourg, separated by circumstance. The film's dialogue is entirely sung as recitative, including casual conversation, and is sung-through, or through-composed, like some operas and stage musicals. It has been seen as the second of an informal tetralogy of Demy films that share some of the same actors, characters, and overall atmosphere of romantic melancholy, coming after Lola (1961) and before The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) and Model Shop (1969). The French-language film was a co-production between France and West Germany.
Madame Tussauds is a wax museum founded in London in 1835 by the French wax sculptor Marie Tussaud. One of the early main attractions was the Chamber of Horrors, which appeared in advertising in 1843.
Burgundy wine is made in the Burgundy region of eastern France, in the valleys and slopes west of the Saône, a tributary of the Rhône. The most famous wines produced here, and those commonly referred to as "Burgundies", are dry red wines made from pinot noir grapes and white wines made from chardonnay grapes.
The French Laundry is a three-Michelin star French and Californian cuisine restaurant located in Yountville, California, in the Napa Valley. Sally Schmitt opened The French Laundry in 1978 and designed her menus around local, seasonal ingredients; she was a visionary chef and pioneer of California cuisine. Since 1994, the chef and owner of The French Laundry is Thomas Keller. The restaurant building dates from 1900 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Vosne-Romanée is a commune in the Côte-d'Or department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France.
The Côte d'Or is a limestone escarpment in Burgundy, France, and the namesake of the department in which it is located. It stretches from Dijon in the north to the river Dheune to the south, overlooking the valley of the Saône to the east.
Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin is a Champagne house founded in 1772 and based in Reims. It is one of the largest Champagne houses. Madame Clicquot is credited with major breakthroughs, creating the first known vintage champagne in 1810, and inventing the riddling table process to clarify champagne in 1816. In 1818, she invented the first known blended rosé champagne by blending still red and white wines, a process still used by the majority of champagne producers.
The Story of Pretty Goldilocks or The Beauty with Golden Hair is a French literary fairy tale written by Madame d'Aulnoy. Andrew Lang included it in The Blue Fairy Book.
The Troll's Daughter is a Danish folktale from Svend Grundtvig's collection (1876), whose English translation was published by Andrew Lang in The Pink Fairy Book (1897).
French folklore encompasses the fables, folklore, fairy tales and legends of the French people.
"Hop-Frog" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1849. The title character, a person with dwarfism taken from his homeland, becomes the jester of a king particularly fond of practical jokes. Taking revenge on the king and his cabinet for the king's striking of his friend and fellow dwarf Trippetta, he dresses the king and his cabinet as orangutans for a masquerade. In front of the king's guests, Hop-Frog murders them all by setting their costumes on fire before escaping with Trippetta.
The Shakespearean fool is a recurring character type in the works of William Shakespeare.
Talmay is a commune in the Côte-d'Or department in eastern France.
Cru is a wine term used to indicate a high-quality vineyard or group of vineyards. It is a French word which was originally used to refer to both a region and anything grown in it, but is now mostly used to refer to both a vineyard and its wines. The term is often used within classifications of French wine. By implication, a wine that displays the name of its cru on its wine label is supposed to exhibit the typical characteristics of this vineyard or group of vineyards. The terms premier cru and grand cru designate levels of presumed quality that are variously defined in different wine regions.
Liliom is a 1934 French fantasy film directed by Fritz Lang based on the 1909 Hungarian stage play of the same title by Ferenc Molnár. The film stars Charles Boyer as Liliom, a carousel barker who is fired from his job after defending the chambermaid Julie from the jealousy of Mme. Muscat, the carousel owner who is infatuated with Liliom. He moves in with Julie and they begin an affair. When Liliom discovers he's about to become a father, he finds he needs money and participates in a robbery which goes awry. Rather than allow himself to be arrested, Liliom kills himself and his soul is transported to a waiting room of Heaven. A heavenly commissioner determines that Liliom will not be admitted into Heaven, only Purgatory, until he returns to Earth to do one good deed.
The cap and bells is a type of fool's cap with bells worn by a court fool or jester. The bells were also added to the dangling sleeves and announced the appearance of the jester.
Mathurine de Vallois, also known as Mathurine la Folle, was a French jester. She was the jester of the court of French kings Henry III, Henry IV and Louis XIII, successively.