Robert Boyle

Every year as the sun clears the horizon on April 1, a handful of people awake with glee. About an equal number of people rise and shine completely unaware that the previously mentioned people are about to trick them into believing Portugal has invaded Massachusetts, or the value of Pi has changed, or that they should park their car six blocks away from work.

The rest of us remember that April 1 is a day for keeping one’s guard up and Gullible Radar on. We get a good laugh when an unlucky coworker moves his desk across the office to make way for the “new septic drain” or finds his cubicle full of packing peanuts. On this day more than any other, people engage in well-meaning pranks on their friends, and even retailers play tricks on each other, such as when Crate and Barrel placed an ad in the New York Times declaring that one of its competitors would be giving away free full-body waxes all day. This tradition, known as April Fools’ Day, is widely accepted as a day of friendly gags in every major country except Canada.

April Fools’ Day dates back to the late 15th Century, the time British physicist, Robert Boyle, built one of the first pneumatic engines. Tradition has it that one of the hand maidens of Boyle’s wife, Persephone, claimed to have had an affair with Boyle, while in the midst of penning New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall – his seminal work based on air pumps – at his country retreat in Devonshire. When it was later revealed that the alleged affair was a lie (though some experts still contend it may have been true), the young girl attempted to acquit herself by claiming it was all a joke. British law was clear, however, that such an accusation was punishable by death, joke or not. The execution – which for women in those days was trampling by livestock – was carried out on April 1, and the foolish “prank” by this servant girl resulted in the words “April Fool” being etched into her gravestone rather than her name, leaving modern historians to wonder about the rest of her story.

“April Fool” wasn’t the only idiom coined from the tragedy. Though it only endured as an English expression until the early 1900s, the term “Persephone’s folly” derived from the same experience and was used to indicate a poor hiring decision.

Like many brilliant scientists, Boyle was seen by peers as at times bizarre and unconventional. He was amused by the irony of the “April Fool” in his household. Each year on the date of the trampling he would conduct an elaborate prank, thus perpetuating April 1 as a day of humor and mischief. He would place garden snakes in his friends’ trousers, pencil in made-up scriptures in Bibles, and cover himself in flour to appear as a ghost. Among the more outlandish jokes Boyle played included painting every one of King Henry VIII’s swans (he kept nearly 100 of them in the royal courtyard) the color purple in 1591, and streaking naked through Buckingham Palace with a dozen local scientists from the astronomers’ guild in 1595. (Had it not been for his prominent status in the kingdom, Boyle would certainly have been hanged for either event.) The latter prank set the stage for the modern day “flash mob,” as well as initiation practices held by a number of North American fraternities.

By the end of his life, Boyle had become known himself as “The April Fool,” for his antics. On his deathbed was awarded the honorary royal title of Chancellor of Comedie. King Henry was recorded that day saying, “A joke is a very serious thing.” Henry VIII was never a very good jokester himself, though his son Reginald IX seemed quite opposite; on one occasion he managed to convince the entire Church of England that the moon was made of solidified tea.

Five hundred years later, 98 percent of the civilized world pays respect to Robert Boyle and Persephone’s poor hand maiden, although most of us have no idea our jokes are based on a centuries-old story of deceit and possible adultery.

I guess that would make us the fools, wouldn’t it?

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