Understanding Shakespeare: The Merry Wives of Windsor by Robert A. Albano - HTML preview

Make their revenue out of legs, and faces, Echo my Lord, and lick away a moth: But your fine, elegant rascal, that can rise

And stoop (almost together) like an arrow; Shoot through the air, as nimbly as a star; Turn short, as doth a swallow; and be here, And there, and here, and yonder, all at once; Present to any humor, all occasion,

And change a visor, swifter, than a thought. This is the creature had the art born with him; Toils not to learn it, but doth practice it

Out of most excellent nature: and such sparks Are the true parasites, others but their zanies.

(III, i: 1-33)

This “fine, elegant rascal,” this Mosca, serves, as suggested above, as an ideal model for the comic type designated here as Jester. And, thus, the attributes or characteristics that are evident in Jonson’s creation may also serve to define the comic type more generally.

Principally, seven of Mosca’s characteristics may serve to define the type:

The Jester is a character that …

1. has a selfish and self-serving nature
2. has a high esteem of himself
3. will ridicule or satirize other situations and individuals
4. has a clever ability for deception and role- playing
5. is linguistically and/or intellectually superior