[ANSTHRLD] incredibly random research question for the day

Tim McDaniel tmcd at panix.com
Wed Mar 2 07:37:55 PST 2011


On Wed, 2 Mar 2011, Castellana Donea <castellana.donea at yahoo.com> wrote:
> In anyone's readings has anyone come across an example of people
> dressing up as animals for pageantry or ceremonies in period?

There was The Bal des Ardents, but that is nothing we want in the SCA:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_VI_of_France#The_Bal_des_Ardents>

     On 29 January 1393, at the behest of the king, a grand party was
     organized to celebrate the wedding of one of the queen's
     ladies-in-waiting at the Hotel de Saint Pol. At the suggestion of
     a Norman Squire, Huguet de Guisay, the King and four other lords
     [5] dressed up as wild men and danced about chained to one
     another. They were "in costumes of linen cloth sewn onto their
     bodies and soaked in resinous wax or pitch to hold a covering of
     frazzled hemp, so that they appeared shaggy & hairy from head to
     foot".[6] At the suggestion of one of the "wild men," Yvain de
     Foix, the king commanded - in view of the obvious danger of fire -
     that the torch-bearers were to stand at the side of the
     room. Nonetheless, the King's brother, Louis of Valois, Duke of
     Orl{e'}ans, who had arrived late, approached with a lighted torch
     in order to discover the identity of the masqueraders, and he
     accidentally set one of them on fire. Alternatively, it may have
     been a plot to kill the mentally deficient king. In any case,
     there was panic as the fire spread. The Duchess of Berry, to save
     a dancer who had come near her to intrigue and tease her, threw
     the train of her gown over him, and it was soon revealed to her
     that the life she had saved was the king's.[7] Several Knights who
     tried to put out the flames were severely burned on their
     hands. Four of the wild men perished: Sir Charles de Poiters son
     of the Count of Valentinois, Huguet de Guisay, Yvain de Foix and
     the Count of Joigny. Another, Jean son of the Lord de Nantouillet,
     saved himself by jumping into a dishwater tub.[8] This incident
     became known as the Bal des Ardents (the "Ball of the Burning
     Men").

Danielis de Lindo
-- 
Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com



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