Also 8 fantocine, 9 vulgar fantosceny. [It. pl. of fantoccino, dim. of fantoccio puppet, f. fante boy, servant, etc.: see FANTERIE.]
1. pl. Puppets made to go through certain evolutions by means of concealed strings or wires.
1791. Boswell, Johnson (1816), I. 396. The exhibition of the Fantoccini in London.
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes (1850), 60/1. Are there no Punches, Fantoccini, Dancing-dogs, Jugglers, Conjurors, Orchestrinas, or even Barrel-organs?
1876. Besant & Rice, Gold. Butterfly, II. xvii. 273. They were so inordinately vain, so self-conscious, so unused to anything beyond their daily experience, that they were as awkward as a pair of fantoccini.
2. A dramatic representation in which these are the performers; a marionette show.
1771. Mrs. J. Harris, in Priv Lett. Ld. Malmesbury (1870), I. 212. I was much pleased with the ‘Fantocine’ I saw last night.
1817. Mar. Edgeworth, Harrington, I. 230. Having been too lazy to go with her, and all the fashionable world, the night before, to the Fantoccini.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour (1861), III. 60. ‘The Fantoccini,’ he said, is the proper title of the exhibition of dancing dolls.
attrib. 1817. Hazlitt, Char. Shaks. (1838), 220. The fantoccini exhibition of the young princes, Edward and York, bandying childish wit with their uncle. Ibid. (1822), Table-t., II. xii. 274. A little fantoccini figure, darting backwards and forwards on the stage, starting, screaming, and playing a number of fantastic tricks before the audience.
