Joculatrix

Joculator Regis is an officer holding no less than three vills in the return of the Domesday Survey for Gloucestershire; and in the same survey, in Surrey, we have a Joculatrix.

He had heard that in far-away France the motley was not confined to men. Had not Jeanne, queen of Charles I, possessed her jestress, Artaude de Puy, "folle to our dear companion," as said the king? Had not Madame d'Or, wearer of the bells, kept the nobles laughing? Had not the haughty, eccentric Don John, his handsome, merry joculatrix, attached to his princely household?

Other artistic endeavours such as dance or musical performances are lost at the moment they are completed: how Adelina the 'joculatrix' mentioned in the Domesday Book came by her surname is now impossible to discover—the term may mean 'singer' or 'entertainer'.