subs. (old).—1. A buffoon; whence (2) = a disreputable rascal. [STANFORD: It. Scaramuccia, the braggart buffoon of Italian comedy.]
1662. DAVIES, trans. The Voyages & Travels of the Ambassadors, VI. 380. Countenances and Postures, as SCARAMUZZA himself would be much troubled to imitate.
1673. WYCHERLEY, The Gentleman Dancing-Master, iii. 1. Ah, le brave SCARAMOUCHE!
1673. DRYDEN, Epilogue to the University of Oxford, 15 (Globe Ed., p. 422).
| Stout SCARAMOUCHA with rush lance rode in, | |
| And ran a tilt at centaur Arlequin. |
1707. WARD, Hudibras Redivivus, II. v. 5. Dress’d up in Black, like SCARAMOUCHES.
1711. Spectator, No. 83. The third artist that I looked over was Fantasque, dressed like a Venetian SCARAMOUCH.
c. 1720. Broadside Ballad, ‘The Masquerade’ [FARMER, Merry Songs and Ballads (1897), iii. 233].
| A SCARAMOUCH is nimble, | |
| Tho’ lazy he appears. |
1731. Political Ballads (ed. WILKINS, 1860), II. 175.
| The SACRAMOUCHES everywhere | |
| With open throats bawl’d out. |
1725. N. BAILEY, trans. The Colloquies of Erasmus, ‘Penitent Virgin.’ O these SCARAMOUCHES, how they know to wheedle the poor people!
1824. IRVING, Tales of a Traveller (1849), 322, ‘The Adventure of the Popkins Family.’ He swore no SCARAMOUCH of an Italian robber would dare to meddle with an Englishman.
2. (showmen’s).—A puppet.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, III. 60. This here’s the SCARAMOUCH that dances without a head.
