JEST (OF. qest". exploit, tale of adventure. from ML. qe.sta, deed, from I.at. gestus, p.p. of qercre, to carry oil) . The word geste was used in Middle English to designate a story. A stage in the transition from story to humorous story and trick, and finally to witty saying, is marked by the geste of l;obin Hood, narrating the shrewd practices of this outlaw and his merry men. Though the word in its modern sense is of com paratively recent date, the jest itself is of an cient origin. Collections of jests passed from the East to (lie Creeks, then to the Romans, and from classic literature spread throughout Europe in the Renaissance period,uniting with that stream of story and witty remark which flows from men of all races and of all times. The earliest of modern jest books, dating from the fifteenth century, were in Latin, and were known as faettice (q.v.). A notable volume was the Liber Facetiarum (1470) of the Florentine Poggio, of which the best stories found their way into the anecdotal literature of Italy, France. Germany, and England. For Italy may be cited Pietro Aretino and the vast body of novelle, dealing with the incidents of every-day life; and for France the conies and joyeux dens of Rabelais and his school. Among the earliest German jest books were the Latin Fa•etice of B. Bebel (1508) and the AS'ehimpf and Ernst of the monk Jo hannes Pauli (1519). largely compilations for which Poggio was freely used. Native German humor of the period is perhaps best seen in the Low Saxon Clenspiegel (1515), which in a mu tilated form early passed into France and Eng land. Clenspiegel (i.e. Owl-glass), from whom the book derives its name, is a knavish peasant who plays his tricks upon his more prosperous countrymen. In England there had long been books sharing in the literature of jest. Such. for example, was the Dc Nugis CuriaHunt (twelfth century) of Walter Map. But the flourishing period of the jest book in England. as in the rest of Europe, was during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. From the press of John Rastell issued two interesting collections— The Merry (Jests of the Widow Edith, in verse (1525), and The Hundred Merry Tales (1526).
The latter volume is mentioned by Beatrice in Much Ado About Yothing (II. i.135). These were succeeded by Merry Tales and Quick An swers (about 1535). containing 114 anecdotes. It became customary for compilers to father their collections upon some well-known historical character who might or might not have been a wit. Famous books of this kind were: The Merry Tales of Skelton (1566). attributed to .John Skelton, who after his death gained the reputa tion of a wag: The Jests of Seogan (1566?), said to have been gathered by Andrew Boorde (q.v.), a witty physician, from the sayings of a fool at the Court of Edward IV.: Tarl ton's Jests (3 parts, 1592, 1600, 1611), named from the great comedian: and The Jests of George Peele (1607), containing perhaps some escapades of the dramatist. This practice of placing a name on the title-page that would sell the hook con tinued into the nineteenth century. receiving its most abused illustration in the collections pur porting to have been 'transcribed from the mouth of Joe Miller' (q.v.). an actor of the eighteenth century. The Merry Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham, dating from the sixteenth century. were given a habitation in Nottinghamshire. The little pamphlet circulated as a chap-book in England and Scotland well into the nineteenth century. Other collections are Pasquil'.s Jests, Mixed with Mother Bunch's Merriments (1604) : The Pleas ant Conceits of Old Hobson, the Merry Londoner (1607) ; and the racy Wit and Mirth of John Taylor (q.v.), the water poet. These books are only a small section of a vast literature of jest which pervaded popular tales and prepared the way for the realism of the modern novel. The jest was fused with the novel of manners by Theodore Hook (q.v.) in his Sayings and Doings (London, 1824-28). The older English jests were edited by W. C. Hazlitt under the title Shakespeare Jest-Books (3 vols., London, 1S64). The interesting jest literature of Germany and its influence is discussed by C. H. Herford in The Literary Relations of England and Germany in the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge, England, 1886). See also the remarks on the Spanish rogue story in the article on the NOVEL.