Introduction: Historical Laughter

Abstract

The Belgians consider themselves to have a good sense of humour. That is not surprising, for in many nation states a claim has been made for a folk humour to characterize the people of that nation. It is implied that this folk humour has its roots in very old traditions and that the Flemish, for instance, have always enjoyed laughing and cracking jokes. Probably that tradition was largely invented and constructed in the nineteenth century.¹ Although we should perhaps not completely ignore the comment by the learned Jesuit Carolus Scribani (1561–1629) in his praise of Antwerp published in 1610, that the Belgian constitution was predominantly sanguine, according to contemporary thinking the humour most corresponding to laughter.² At any rate, a main reference in this respect is the often referred to Burgundian lifestyle of the Southern Netherlanders, Belgians, Flemish and Walloons alike. From the late fourteenth until the early sixteenth century especially, people from Flanders and Brabant, southern provinces of the Low Countries, participated in a rich culture, stimulated by the Burgundian dukes and the noble and urban elites in society. Copious eating, drinking, pissing, dancing, laughing and feasting are supposed to have been key pastimes in this age.