Tabarin

A contemporary woodcut shows Tabarin in the dress of a clown, but with a gallant moustache and pointed beard, carrying a wooden sword, like his distant puppet descendant Mr. Punch, — which would trip him up— and wearing a soft grey felt hat capable of assuming countless amusing shapes in his deft fingers.

Tabarin from French tabard denotes a short cloak of the kind the commedia dell'arte figure Scaramouche wears.

Numerous farces and dialogues were credited to him, and long series of cheap leaflets purporting to be his complete works began to appear as early as 1622.

Stock characters besides Tabarin, with his famous felt hat Le Chapeau de Tabarin that could be rolled into a variety of shapes to aid his characterizations (see "Chapeaugraphy"), were two old men Lucas and Piphagne whose echoes still resound in the Barber of Seville, and the witty and self-reliant ladies Francisquine and Isabella.

Both Molière and La Fontaine, who praised him, were influenced by the Tabarin tradition of coarse quick repartee, and he was also well spoken of, long after he was gone, by Boileau and Voltaire.