a droll, or mimic. Ménage, after Salmasius, derives the word from buffo, a name given to those who appeared on the Roman stage with their cheeks blown up; that receiving blows thereon they might make the greater noise, and excite the laughter of the people. Others, as Rhodiginus, make the origin of buffoonery more venerable, deriving it from the feast called buphonia, instituted in Attica by Erechtheus.

Buffoons were variously denominated scarre, gelasianni, mimologi, ministelli, and joculatores, and their exhibitions were chiefly at the tables of the great. Gallienus never sat down to meals without a second table of buffoons by him. Tillencourt also renders pantomimes by buffoons; in which sense, he observes, the shows of the buffoons were taken away by Domitian, restored by Nerva, and finally abolished by Trajan.