Ya’ll Gonna Make Me Act a Jester

Q: My mother says I dress and act like a fool?  I have heard this word used before, but think that it means something entirely different meaning.  What is the origin of the word and its true meaning?

A: Well, reader, you sure posted a stumper. After searching where the phrase “act a fool” comes from for days and days, I finally had to enlist the help of other area librarians to see what we could find. It seems 15 or 20 heads truly are better than 1. Here’s what we found out:

The phrase “play the fool”, has been around for a very long time. In the King James version of the Bible (Samuel 26:21) Saul says, “I have sinned…Behold, I have played the fool and have committed serious error.”

The Oxford English Dictionary states that the phrase’s earliest recording was in 1532 by Frenchman Giles Du Wes. By 1659, an English member of Parliament, was recording in his diary, “I staid up a little while, playing the fool with the lass of the house.”

While the original meaning of “fool” was a senseless or stupid person, by the time “play the fool” came into use, to be called a fool meant that you were more of a jester or a clown. So to play the fool means “to act the part of a fool or a jester”. This might be familiar to you if you’ve ever read Shakespeare, where many “fools” appeared as a way to bring humor to the play.

But that’s not where this little phrase stopped. Even today in modern culture, we hear people say someone is “acting a fool”. Urbandictionary.com defines “act a fool” as “to stop acting rationally and start acting foolishly; to go nuts”.

It’s used in urban culture to describe going “crazy”, or having an insane amount of fun. And “act a fool” is present in the lyrics of many hip hop and rap songs. The popular musician, Prince, used it in his song “The Bird” in 1983:

“Brothers, don’t be cool,

Women like it sometimes when U act a fool”

“Act A Fool” is even the title of  hip hop songs by the artists, Ludacris and Lil Jon. Both songs use the phrase “act a fool” to describe getting crazy and partying (ex: “Act a fool til they cut the lights and we still ain’t goin’ home”).

The mystery still lies in how “play the fool” in 1592 became the “act a fool” in 2010. But we hope this helps explain the meaning of the phrase. Chances are, when your mother says you’re acting a fool, she doesn’t mean you’re a simpleton-she thinks you’re funny!

Jack O’Lantern Genealogy

Q: Why do we carve pumpkins for Halloween?

A: The origin of carving pumpkins is thought have started long ago in Ireland. We found this answer in the book Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne:

“Irish villagers once found their way through the dark of late autumn by the light of a lantern made from a turnip or beet. As time went on, groups of Halloween revelers carried these lanterns on their annual visits from house to house. In some places, they represented goblins freed from the dead.”

My the time this practice made it to America, it had changed a bit. In the early days of American life, townspeople would carve letters of the alphabet into pumpkins. Then “fortune-seekers” would be blindfolded and led to a row of pumpkins. Whichever letters they touched were supposed to predict the first letters of their true loves’ name. During this same time, Americans started serving roasted pumpkin seeds from inside the great orange squash.

Today, all across the world, we still carve pumpkins and turnips during this spooky time of year!

 

 

The Eyre is Human

Q: Was Jane Eyre a real person?

A: This is a great question and something that many readers wonder about when they read the classic novel of love, religion, and social class: Jane Eyre.

It would seem like Jane Eyre is a real person because the original title of the book is Jane Eyre: An Autobiography. The definition of an autobiography is a book that someone writes about their own life. However, this book is not an autobiography because Jane Eyre never really existed. The real author, Charlotte Bronte, imagined her character and then wrote an “autobiography” as if she was that character. To be really truthful, Ms. Bronte would have had to name the book Jane Eyre: An Autobiography…But Not Really.

It’s interesting that the author chose this format for the book because many have talked about how similar the lives of the imagined Jane Eyre and the real Charlotte Bronte were. It is widely believed that, although they did have differences, Jane’s life in the novel was based on Charlotte’s real life experiences.

For instance, Charlotte had an awful boarding school experience much like Jane does in the beginning of the book. One of Jane’s school friends, Helen Burns, dies of consumption, just like two of Charlotte’s sisters (Elizabeth and Maria) died during Charlotte’s time in school. The home that the Eyre family lives in is said to be based on a real house in North Lees Hall in Northern England. And Ms. Bronte also became a governess, just like Jane Eyre does in the book.

In the end, the answer to the question “Was Jane Eyre real?” isn’t as easy as yes or no. Jane Eyre was a combination of Charlotte Bronte’s own life and of her imagination.

To read more about Charlotte Bronte, you can pick up The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell, who was a close friend of the Bronte family. Search for it at a library near you by visiting our online catalog.