The Day After April Fool’s

I’m not much of an April Fool’s Day prankster, but I did catch one April Fool joke yesterdaythat amused the heck out of me: down-filled swimwear from outdoor clothing specialist Eddie Bauer!

 
Well done, EB—you certainly made me smile!

But clothing humor is not a modern phenomenon, as we’ve already seen on NineteenTeen: 19th century folks liked to dress up in silly costumes as much as anyone, especially when there was a ball in the offing. Witness this charming couple at a costumed ball from the pages of The Court and Lady’s Magazine, probably ca. 1838, trying to look like their grandparents did sixty years before (though the cut of the man's coat just screams late 1830s!)

 



In the same vein, notice the figures behind the main pair—it looks like the gentleman in the pink trousers raided his parents’ attic for that ca. 1805 coat and hat and exaggerated cravat! I'm not sure what his fair companion is supposed to be—a bank robber, maybe? Behind them I see a...a shepherd? And heaven knows what that other gentleman is supposed to be. ☺

 


And even more wonderful are these costumes from Petit Courrier des Dames, Journal des Modes from December 1833 with a distinctive international flair—and very short skirts!! I suppose if one is disguised as a Scottish (love the plaid ribbons lacing up her dancing slippers), Swiss (I think the braids, a la "Swiss Miss", are supposed to be the clincher), or German (okay, why this costume is supposed to be distinctively German somehow eludes me...) lady, it’s possible to get way with displaying one’s ankles and calves in such a fashion...though I'm not sure the ladies of Scotland, Switzerland, or Germany would have agreed that these were very representative.

Now, here’s some nice news that isn’t at all an April Fool joke: Between Silk and Sand is a finalist in the young adult categories in both the Reader’s ChoiceAward contest of the New England Chapter of RWA and in the Write Touch Contest of Wisconsin RWA. Even if it isn't a joke, it has certainly made me smile!

Tricky Characters

Marissa and I have told you a few stories since this blog started last fall. Things like

--A Queen who nearly wasn’t born
--A lord whose nose rotted off after he spirited away ancient statues
--Sleeves that defy gravity (and logic)
--Mangel-wurzels that grow to humungous sizes, like those in the picture.

But Marissa’s post on April 1 beat them all. Rotting badger pelts stinking up the royal court? A queen who chews and spits (apparently farther than I do!) betel-nuts? What amazing stories!

What a load of rot! April Fools!

I hope you were amused. The celebration of fools and pranks has been around since at least the time of the Romans and was well established in England by the nineteenth century.

It wasn’t uncommon for boys in particular to excel at playing pranks. Certainly there are horror stories (or fond remembrances, depending on your point of view) of things that occurred at boys’ schools like Eton and Harrow. But even the adults got involved.

Take Colonel Dan Mackinnon, for example. He was famous for playing jokes on people. He fought against Napoleon under Wellington. Once he impersonated Victoria’s uncle, the Duke of York, at a great banquet given in Spain. The only reason he was discovered is that, when a bowl of punch was served, he dunked his head in it and kicked both feet into the air. I imagine that didn’t do a lot for international relations, even then.

People bet on him to do outrageous stunts, even at balls and dinner parties. He’d go around the room without touching the floor, leaping from furniture to table and back again. He’d scramble up and over rooftops. Once he went around Covent Garden theatre by running along the decorative lips of the boxes where people sat! And did our nineteenth century darlings decry him? No indeed! They ate him up! He was extremely popular and welcomed nearly everywhere.

I do hope the same can be said of Marissa and me.

So, did you encounter any other pranks or whimsy on April Fools?