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The Household Encyclopedia as Magic Kit: Medieval Popular Interest in Pranks and Illusions *
Author(s) -
Roy Bruno
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
the journal of popular culture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.238
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1540-5931
pISSN - 0022-3840
DOI - 10.1111/j.0022-3840.1980.1401_60.x
Subject(s) - magic (telescope) , popularity , illusion , encyclopedia , art , joke , visual arts , aesthetics , middle ages , transformative learning , art history , sociology , literature , history , psychology , law , political science , ancient history , social psychology , pedagogy , physics , quantum mechanics , neuroscience
Each of us has wished at some time to send in three box tops andget a magic kit that contains itchingpowder to give to our enemies, instructions for tricks designed to baffle our friends, and potions to make us more desirable. Exactly so in the Middle Ages. Bruno Roy's delightful essay on medieval do‐it‐yourself magic reveals the strong popular interest in practical jokes, illusions and tricks. People in the Middle Ages were playful and high‐spirited, waiting to entertain and be entertained. The transformative power implicit i n the tricks played by jugglers or entertainers appealed to all classes of society; these same jugglers not only dealt in illusory tricks but often used various chemicalpreparations, giving a “scientific” cast to their pranks. That so many of these tricks were related to the household in terms of the joke itself or the ingredients used suggests the widespread popularity of magic kits, a popularity that today perhaps resides only with the children who save the box tops.