The 2,188 occurrences of buffoon

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~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,099   ~   ~   ~

He was made one of the King's secretaries in spite of the loud murmurs of this pampered fraternity against receiving into their body a player and a buffoon.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,476   ~   ~   ~

The French heard these stories with amazement, for they could not understand how this musical demigod could be the same as he who was little better than a witty buffoon.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,968   ~   ~   ~

Scratch the buffoon and you get the charlatan."

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,450   ~   ~   ~

Such a picture satisfied the tastes of the public of his time, and that public found nothing incongruous in a return to the scene immediately afterward of all the characters save the reprobate, who had gone to his reward, to hear a description of the catastrophe from the buffoon under the table, and platitudinously to moralize that the perfidious wretch, having been stored away safely in the realm of Pluto and Proserpine, nothing remained for them to do except to raise their voices in the words of the "old song," _"Questo è il fin di chi fa mal: E dei perfidi la morte Alla vita è sempre ugual.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 433   ~   ~   ~

The band of buffoons comes running, bringing beneath the shady boughs the carnival of human passions and its rainbow-hued garb.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,311   ~   ~   ~

These boys threw little cakes on both sides amongst the crowd, and were followed by the whole company of bakers, marching on foot, two by two, in their best clothes, with cakes, loaves, pasties, and pies of all sorts on their heads, and after them two buffoons, or jack-puddings, with their faces and clothes smeared with meal, who diverted the mob with their antic gestures.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,234   ~   ~   ~

Again: "When Rabelais is diffuse, or a buffoon, or worse, it may be to throw disputers off the scent as to his real mark of satire or philosophy.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 209   ~   ~   ~

"Lane is the merest buffoon," he replied quietly.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 501   ~   ~   ~

Hilarion de Coste states, moreover, that "she composed a tragi-comic translation of almost the whole of the New Testament, which she caused to be played before the King, her husband, having assembled with this object some of the best actors of Italy; and as these buffoons are only born to give pleasure and make time pass away, in order to amuse the company they invariably introduced _rondeaux_ and _virelais_ against the ecclesiastics, especially the monks and village priests."

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,493   ~   ~   ~

Cruche, a great buffoon, who a little time before with several others had publicly performed in certain entertainments and novelties' (_sic_) on scaffolds upon the Place Maubert, there being in turn jest, sermon, morality and farce; and in the morality appeared several lords taking their cloth of gold to the tomb and carrying their lands upon their shoulders into the other world.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 325   ~   ~   ~

The priests figuring away in the most ridiculous dresses; some in the costume of buffoons, others in female attire with their faces daubed with soot, or covered with hideous masks, some dancing, others jumping, or playing different games, drinking, and eating puddings, sausages, etc., offering them to the high-priest whilst he was celebrating high mass; also burning old shoes in the chalice, instead of incense, to produce a disagreeable scent; at length, elevated by wine, their orgies began to have the appearance of those of demons, roaring, howling, singing, and laughing until the walls of the church echoed with their yells.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,638   ~   ~   ~

'Parson Walsingham, with all his reading,' his mind muttered, as it were, to itself, 'is no better than an old woman; and that knave and buffoon, Mr. Apothecary Toole, looked queer, the spiteful dog, just to disquiet me.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 11,023   ~   ~   ~

Even the thought of himself, Arthur Carroll, posing nightly as a buffoon before the City crowds, did not daunt him.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,410   ~   ~   ~

So I went to his house in the quarter--such narrow streets!--and was shown up by a young eunuch into the hareem, and found my old friend very poorly, but spent a pleasant evening with him, his young wife--a Georgian slave whom he had married,--his daughter by a former wife--whom he had married when he was fourteen, and the female dwarf buffoon of the Valideh Pasha (Ismail's mother) whose heart I won by rising to her, because she was so old and deformed.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 479   ~   ~   ~

It was not only, as we are too ready at the first glance to believe, the megalomania of an autocrat drunk with vanity, the gross vanity of some brainless buffoon; it was not the warlike impulses, the blind infatuation and egoism of a feudal caste; it was not even the impatient and deliberately fanned envy and covetousness of a too prolific race close-cramped on a dreary and ungrateful soil: it was none of these that let loose the hateful war.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 939   ~   ~   ~

But of these things I vainely doe but tell, Where hell is heauen, and heau'n is now turn'd hell; Where that which lately blasphemy hath bin, 100 Now godlinesse, much lesse accounted sin; And a long while I greatly meruail'd why Buffoons and Bawdes should hourely multiply, Till that of late I construed it that they To present thrift had got the perfect way, When I concluded by their odious crimes, It was for vs no thriuing in these times.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,195   ~   ~   ~

The super-human antics of the acrobatic buffoons in Hanlon's perennial "Superba," and those of the Byrne Brothers in "Eight Bells," are familiar examples.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 473   ~   ~   ~

Poor sweet maid of Domremy, In thine innocence secure, Heed not what men say of thee, The buffoon and his jest impure!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 478   ~   ~   ~

_The buffoon_; Voltaire.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,140   ~   ~   ~

It is also not correct; he notices, to be sure, that in the Sanskrit drama (of which he knows only _Śakuntalā_ and _Mṛcchakaṭikā_) the rôle of buffoon is assigned invariably to a Brahman, but he is ignorant of the origin of this singular custom.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,326   ~   ~   ~

The man was grinning still, fatuously and consciously, like a buffoon who knows he will be applauded; Lucas fronted his smiling security with a still fury that wiped the mirth from his face and left him gaping.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 384   ~   ~   ~

Hecate in Middleton has a Son, a low buffoon: the hags of Shakspeare have neither child of their own, nor seem to be descended from any parent.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 298   ~   ~   ~

And a strange character have we to deal with:-- 'A man so various, that he seemed to be Not one, but all mankind's epitome: Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong, Was everything by starts, and nothing long; But, in the course of one revolving moon, Was chemist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,510   ~   ~   ~

Scarron was nothing more than a merry buffoon.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,568   ~   ~   ~

He was visited as a curiosity, as a clever buffoon, and those who came to see, remained to laugh.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 248   ~   ~   ~

That is, that the Wandering Students ranked in common estimation with jongleurs, buffoons, and minstrels.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,250   ~   ~   ~

The devout travelled in large companies: and, in the May mornings, a merry sight it was as, with infinite clatter and merriment, with bells, minstrels, and buffoons, they passed through thorp and village, bound for the tomb of St. Thomas.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 332   ~   ~   ~

Hence the levity, in dealing with things sacred, in Germany often found in minds of the first and second orders, here is taken up by those to the third and fourth--the copyists and imitators; nay, by the buffoons who figure at the farces of mock philanthropy.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,262   ~   ~   ~

It was not in my nature to derive consolation from such scenes; from theatres, whose buffoon laughter and discordant mirth awakened distempered sympathy, or where fictitious tears and wailings mocked the heart-felt grief within; from festival or crowded meeting, where hilarity sprung from the worst feelings of our nature, or such enthralment of the better ones, as impressed it with garish and false varnish; from assemblies of mourners in the guise of revellers.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,820   ~   ~   ~

Farewell to music, and the sound of song; to the marriage of instruments, where the concord of soft and harsh unites in sweet harmony, and gives wings to the panting listeners, whereby to climb heaven, and learn the hidden pleasures of the eternals!--Farewell to the well-trod stage; a truer tragedy is enacted on the world's ample scene, that puts to shame mimic grief: to high-bred comedy, and the low buffoon, farewell!--Man may laugh no more.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,662   ~   ~   ~

Nay, we confess to have more than once passed the Français without the least compunction, with _les Horaces_ or _Andromaque_ on the bills, and a crowd at the door, to commit ourselves, a few paces farther, to the friendly arms of a stall at the Palais Royal, and the mirth-inspiring influence of Tousez and Levassor, the most comical buffoon and admirable mimic on the French stage.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,694   ~   ~   ~

When Wright is not compelled to make a buffoon of himself in some stupid travestie, but is allowed fair scope for the display of his comic talents, which are really considerable, we prefer him to Ravel.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,058   ~   ~   ~

There all was show and scene-shifting the tinsel of high life, and the frolic, of brilliant frivolity.--The minister was eclipsed by the mistress; the king was a buffoon in the hands of the courtier; and the government of a powerful nation was disposed of in the style of a flirtation behind the scenes.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,828   ~   ~   ~

In fact, he is a species of buffoon, who is allowed full liberty of speech, being himself a universal butt.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 385   ~   ~   ~

This feeling gained ground so much afterwards that Lucian makes Æsop act the part of a buffoon in "The Isles of the Blessed."

~   ~   ~   Sentence 958   ~   ~   ~

But we may feel sure he did not keep this dry and profitable end always in view, for he wrote a jest-book, and was nick-named by his enemies "Scurra Consularis,"[21] the consular buffoon.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 960   ~   ~   ~

We should not be inclined to accuse a man of that, who tells us that "a regard to proper times, moderation and forbearance in jesting, and a limitation in the number of jokes, will distinguish the orator from the buffoon;" who says that "indelicacy is a disgrace, not only to the forum, but to any company of well-bred people," and that neither great vice nor great misery is a subject for ridicule.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,249   ~   ~   ~

A buffoon, or parasite, who sat among the guests, exclaims "Give him a cup of wine," and he was taught various tricks.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,629   ~   ~   ~

Some profane men say that the coat of our Lord at Treves is not genuine, but only an old rag; he does not believe there is now any hair of the Virgin in the world; and the preaching friars who sell indulgences are only a set of buffoons who deceive old apple-women.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,828   ~   ~   ~

In Roman times they were little more than buffoons,[49] and not very different from the mediæval fools.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,829   ~   ~   ~

They seem to have received nicknames, and Petronius describes a very low buffoon performing antics in a myrtle robe with a belt round his waist.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,706   ~   ~   ~

[49] Lucian makes the father of Cleanthis congratulate himself on having obtained a buffoon for his son's wedding feast.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,241   ~   ~   ~

While these employed the day, the games of chance, the wine, the music, the movements of the degraded dancing-girl, and the tricks of the buffoon and the jester, amused the late hours and varied the festive scenes of the night.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 113   ~   ~   ~

The new emperor surrounded himself with buffoons, playactors, and boon-companions.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 775   ~   ~   ~

The caresses of harlots and the jests of buffoons regulated the policy of the State.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 810   ~   ~   ~

James I. was given to "stammering, slobbering, shedding unmanly tears," alternating between the buffoon and the pedagogue.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,436   ~   ~   ~

Thus another newspaper libel upon the poor old black bear--the buffoon of the forest--was shown to be devoid of truth; yet that story was published in the Toronto papers, and, no doubt, was copied all over the United States.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 419   ~   ~   ~

None more abhorr'd the Sycophant Buffoon, And Parasite, th'excrescence of a Throne; Creatures who their creating Sun disgrace, A Brood more abject than _Niles_ Slime-born Race.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,061   ~   ~   ~

On these he wrote in _Earnest_ and in _Jeast_, Till he grew mad, and turn'd into a Beast, _Zattue_ his Zanie was, Buffoon, and Fool, Who turn'd Religion into Ridicule: Jeer'd at the Plot, did _Sanhedrims_ abuse, Mock'd Magistrates, damn'd all Sects of the _Jews_.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 559   ~   ~   ~

It is easy enough to be a buffoon; it is more difficult to excite the higher emotions."

~   ~   ~   Sentence 129   ~   ~   ~

You complain that the monks and priests are buffoons; and you are buffoons; that they are gamblers and drunkards, and you are the same.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 115   ~   ~   ~

Molière, in his good pieces, is as superior to the pure but cold Terence, and to the droll Aristophanes, as to Dancourt the buffoon.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,145   ~   ~   ~

I saw there that foreigners who are astonished that in the plays of the great Shakespeare a Roman senator plays the buffoon, and that a king appears on the stage drunk, are treated as little-minded.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,149   ~   ~   ~

The Italians, the French, the men of letters of all other countries, who have not spent some time in England, take him only for a clown, for a joker far inferior to Harlequin, for the most contemptible buffoon who has ever amused the populace.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 5,408   ~   ~   ~

[Footnote 379: Decoratus is called by Boethius, who was his colleague in some office, 'a wretched buffoon and informer' (nequissimus scurra et delator.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,628   ~   ~   ~

His arms hanging down beside him like useless appendages to a statue; his white waistcoat all open except one or two buttons at the bottom; his white necktie wound carelessly about his neck; his shirt collar wide open; his face a kind of oblong quadrilateral containing features grotesquely drawn downward; his eyes, large and prominent, so turned as to show most of the sclerotic white of the eyeballs,--all were combined to present the buffoon in his utmost burlesque of himself.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 983   ~   ~   ~

Edward Lear, a richer, more romantic and therefore more truly Victorian buffoon, improved the experiment.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 986   ~   ~   ~

It may appear, because I have used from time to time the only possible phrases for the case, that I mean the Victorian Englishman to appear as a blockhead, which means an unconscious buffoon.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 987   ~   ~   ~

To all this there is a final answer: that he was also a conscious buffoon--and a successful one.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,884   ~   ~   ~

Erasmus, who was diverted at first, afterwards turned away with disgust, and Luther called the authors buffoons.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,028   ~   ~   ~

He was a scholar who could be converted into a domestic buffoon whenever one was required.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 10,102   ~   ~   ~

This greatly amused G.K. and he began the book (it actually appeared as _The Well and the Shallows_) with "An Apology for Buffoons."

~   ~   ~   Sentence 403   ~   ~   ~

The countess was playing out a "patience," and Nastacia Ivanovna, the old buffoon, with his peevish face, sitting in a window with two old women, did not say a word.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 435   ~   ~   ~

"And now what shall I do, where can I go?" thought she, as she slowly went along the corridor, where she presently met the buffoon.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 772   ~   ~   ~

The Buffoon and the Countryman.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 774   ~   ~   ~

A Buffoon, well known for his jokes, said that he had a kind of entertainment that had never been produced in a theater.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 776   ~   ~   ~

The Buffoon appeared, and imitated the squeaking of a little pig so admirably with his voice, that the audience declared that he had a porker under his cloak, and demanded that it should be shaken out.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 781   ~   ~   ~

The Buffoon grunted and squeaked, and obtained, as on the preceding day, the applause and cheers of the spectators.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 783   ~   ~   ~

The crowd, however, cried out that the Buffoon had given a far more exact imitation.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 28,682   ~   ~   ~

For sometimes they give much to those who ought to be poor, namely, to buffoons and flatterers, whereas to the good they give nothing."

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,341   ~   ~   ~

465-470; and letter to Murray, August 24, 1819, ibid., p. 348: "I wrote to you by last post, enclosing a buffooning letter for publication, addressed to the buffoon Roberts, who has thought proper to tie a canister to his own tail.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,266   ~   ~   ~

Afar, a dwarf buffoon stood telling tales To a sedate grey circle of old smokers, Of secret treasures found in hidden vales, Of wonderful replies from Arab jokers, Of charms to make good gold and cure bad ails, Of rocks bewitched that open to the knockers, Of magic ladies who, by one sole act, Transformed their lords to beasts (but that's a fact).

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,506   ~   ~   ~

But I'm digressing; what on earth has Nero, Or any such like sovereign buffoons,[dg] To do with the transactions of my hero, More than such madmen's fellow man--the moon's?

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,807   ~   ~   ~

[dg] _But I'm digressing--what on earth have Nero And Wordsworth--both poetical buffoons, etc._--[MS.] {182}[229] [See _De Poeticâ_, cap.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,728   ~   ~   ~

Suwarrow chiefly was on the alert, Surveying, drilling, ordering, jesting, pondering; For the man was, we safely may assert, A thing to wonder at beyond most wondering; Hero, buffoon, half-demon, and half-dirt, Praying, instructing, desolating, plundering--Now Mars, now Momus--and when bent to storm A fortress, Harlequin in uniform.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 5,055   ~   ~   ~

Byron's epithet "buffoon" (line 5) may, perhaps, be traced to the following anecdote recorded by Tranchant de Laverne (p. 281): "During the first war of Poland ... he published, in the order of the day, that at the first crowing of the cock the troops would march to attack the enemy, and caused the spy to send word that the Russians would be upon them some time after midnight.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 72   ~   ~   ~

So common has it been in this country to caricature the black man, to represent him as a driveler in speech and a buffoon in action, that I am always loath to accept as his those many would-be-witty sayings which, too often, originating with others, have been attributed to him.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 998   ~   ~   ~

From this point onwards the drama rings with the rough drinking songs, pious hymns, and sweet lyrics of the buffoon, the preacher, and the lover.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 435   ~   ~   ~

He has perhaps been the buffoon in a Grecian theatre, and in you now recognizes a brother in the art.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 461   ~   ~   ~

'The low buffoon!'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 214   ~   ~   ~

His friends and enemies and heroes and buffoons were the youth of the narrow tortuous streets, his visions of height were the turrets of the palaces and the precipitate roofs of the town.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,110   ~   ~   ~

The dramatic and musical arts were in the rudest state; but the Marquis had summoned the most popular singers, harpers, and buffoons to exercise their talents in this splendid theatre.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 563   ~   ~   ~

Rudd was looked on quite rightly as an absolute buffoon; Collins got on fairly well, but was generally admitted to be a bit eccentric.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,473   ~   ~   ~

His domestic virtues, however, were sadly lost on Fernhurst, who looked on him as a general buffoon, a hopeless ass.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,053   ~   ~   ~

His preparatory schoolmaster said of him once: "There is some danger of his becoming the school buffoon."

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,425   ~   ~   ~

He remained indifferent, looking curiously at the adjoining graves, filled with a monstrous desire to laugh, seeing in death only his sardonic buffoon's mask.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 611   ~   ~   ~

To make life one long carnival, to hunt game and to witness comedies and the antics of buffoons, to hear marvellous tales of the new world and voluptuous verses of the humanists and of the great Ariosto, to enjoy music and to consume the most delicate viands and the most delicious wines--this was what he lived for.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 369   ~   ~   ~

At the end of it up leaps an ugly buffoon, in goatskin, with rams' horns upon his head.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,056   ~   ~   ~

For the rest, 'he attired himself in pompous clothes, wearing doublets of brocade, cloaks trimmed with gold lace, gorgeous caps, neck-chains, and other vanities of a like description, fit for buffoons and mountebanks.'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 6,176   ~   ~   ~

Her brother, Flamineo, becomes under Webster's treatment one of those worst human infamies--a court dependent; ruffian, buffoon, pimp, murderer by turns.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 9,837   ~   ~   ~

At the end of it up leaps an ugly buffoon, in goatskin, with rams' horns upon his head.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 10,524   ~   ~   ~

For the rest, 'he attired himself in pompous clothes, wearing doublets of brocade, cloaks trimmed with gold lace, gorgeous caps, neck-chains, and other vanities of a like description, fit for buffoons and mountebanks.'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,496   ~   ~   ~

Sheridan's Joseph was a man of culture: Mr. Henley's is a buffoon.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 484   ~   ~   ~

Socrates was more or less of a buffoon, and to many in Athens he was a huge joke--a town fool.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,768   ~   ~   ~

Grant it be so; yet certainly in the most luxurious entertainments it is Folly must give the sauce and relish to the daintiest delicacies; so that if there be no one of the guests naturally fool enough to be played upon by the rest, they must procure some comical buffoon, that by his jokes and flouts and blunders shall make the whole company split themselves with laughing; for to what purpose were it to be stuffed and crammed with so many dainty bits, savory dishes, and toothsome rarities, if after all this epicurism, the eyes, the ears, and the whole mind of man, were not so well foisted and relieved with laughing, jesting, and such like divertisements, which, like second courses, serve for the promoting of digestion?

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,006   ~   ~   ~

Hearne defended his friend from the charge of pedantry, and declared that the mistake could only be made by a 'shallow buffoon.'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 14   ~   ~   ~

I need not tell Your Grace, that, in former times, every Family of Distinction was considered as incomplete in its establishment, if it did not possess a certain whimsical Character called a _Fool_; who was either to afford amusement to his witty Master by the real singularity of his Humour,--or to act as a foil to his foolish Lord by well-timed displays of affected Folly.--These appendages to Greatness have long been laid aside.--Indeed, the present Age, which is remarkable for its refinements, has, in the general methods of forming the Great, blended the two Characters;--and it does not seldom happen, as Your Grace very well knows, that a Modern Man of Fashion serves his Company both as their _Host_ and their _Buffoon_.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,460   ~   ~   ~

There were ministers of state, soldiers, admirals-of-the-sea, promoters, preachers, philosophers, players, poets, polite gamblers and buffoons.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,972   ~   ~   ~

Asa Loki was the Momus Satan or Devil Buffoon of the Scandinavian mythology, the half amusing, half horrible embodiment of wit, treachery, and evil; now residing with the gods in heaven, now accompanying Thor on his frequent adventures, now visiting and plotting with his own kith and kin in frosty Jotunheim, beyond the earth environing sea, or in livid Helheim deep beneath the domain of breathing humanity.3 With a Jotun woman, Angerbode, or Messenger of Evil, Loki begets three fell children.

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