Joseph Harding, is allusive to the
ceremony of the _feast of fools_, and does not represent a group of
morris-dancers, as I had erroneously supposed. Indeed, Mr. Douce
believes that many of the strange carvings on the _misereres_ in our
cathedrals have references to these practices. And yet, to the honor of
England, they never appear to have been equally common with us as in
France.--According to Du Cange[108], the confraternity of the Conards or
Cornards was confined to Rouen and Evreux. I have not been able to
ascertain when they were suppressed; but they certainly existed in the
time of Taillepied, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, about
fifty years previously to which they dropped their original name of
_Coqueluchers_. At this time too they had evidently degenerated from the
primary object of their institution, "ridendo castigare mores atque in
omne quod turpiter factum fuerat ridiculum immittere." Taillepied was
an eye-witness of their practices; and he prudently contents himself
with saying; "le fait est plus clair a le voir que je ne pourrois icy
l'escrire.
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