Editing Tabarin (section)

{{Other uses}}
[[File:Inventaire universel des oeuvres de Tabarin (1622) – Detail with Tabarin - Gallica (adjusted).jpg|thumb|Tabarin, detail from the title page of ''Inventaire universel des oeuvres de Tabarin'', 1622]]
[[File:Inventaire universel des oeuvres de Tabarin (1622) - Gallica (adjusted).jpg|thumb|Title page of ''Inventaire universel des oeuvres de Tabarin'', 1622]]

'''Tabarin''' was the [[stage name|street name]] of '''Anthoine Girard''' (c. 1584 &ndash; August 16, 1633), the most famous Parisian street [[charlatan]] of his day, who amused his audiences in the [[Place Dauphine]] by farcical dialogue with his brother Philippe (as Mondor), with whom he reaped a golden harvest by the sale of quack medicines for several years after 1618. [[Street theatre]] was popular theatre, on an improvised stage with a curtain backdrop, to the music of a [[hurdy-gurdy]] and a set of [[viol]]s. More formal contemporary performances were confined to the royal court or to the [[Hôtel de Bourgogne (theatre)|Hotel de Bourgogne]], overseen by the medieval guild that had the monopoly of theatrical performances in Paris.

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 [[Punch and Judy|Mr. Punch]], &mdash; which would trip him up&mdash; 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.

In more elaborate weekly performances others appeared, notably his wife. In these he based his bawdy jokes on the stock situations of ''commedia dell'arte'' troupes, which were amusing the French court at the time, brought up to date for Parisians by running banter of topical allusions and knowing local jokes, based on his original gifts for [[improvisation]]. The Girard brothers retired about 1628, purchased a ''seigneurie'' and lived out their retirement as country gentlemen near [[Orléans]].

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. A [[Falstaff]]ian old soldier (based on the ''[[Miles Gloriosus|miles gloriosus]]'' of Roman comedy) named Capitaine Rodomonte, gave his name to the ''[[rodomontade]]'' of French theater, an extravagantly inflated and drawn-out tirade of deluded self-confidence, vain threats and invective. 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 [[Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux|Boileau]] and [[Voltaire]].

''Tabarin'' became the French [[eponym]] of any comic performer of a street booth. It was taken up as a [[cabaret]] that was made immortal by a [[Paul Colin (artist)|Paul Colin]] poster which epitomized the 1920s.
With this history Tabarin is the foundation of Bal Tabarin. A famous cabaret business.
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File:Théâtre de Tabarin - Abraham Bosse - Gallica (adjusted).jpg|Street theatre of Tabarin, engraved by [[Abraham Bosse]]
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