A mere anatomy, a mountebank, A threadbare juggler.
V, 1, 239.
A well known character in Shakespeare’s time. This entertainer performed at street corners, who, from an elevated position, addressed and amused his audience by means of stories, tricks, juggling and all forms of quackery, in which he was generally assisted by a professional clown or fool. Derived from the Italian Montebanchi, to mount a bench.
CORIOLANUS
MUMMERS.
If you chance to be pinched with the colic, you make faces like mummers.
II, 1, 83.
In the fourteenth century, mummings were the customary entertainments held at the Court on festive occasions. They consisted of men in masquerade, performing in dumb show, with the addition of dancing. The word is derived from mum, an articulate sound made with closed lips. Anyone taking part in these mummings was called a mummer. The meaning of the word in its slang and contemptuous reference to an actor is of quite modern date. These mummings or disguisings—both these terms were used indifferently—continued to be presented until the first quarter of the sixteenth century, at which date they assumed the name of masks, and were of a more elaborate nature than the older form of entertainment, speaking parts being added, which were generally written in verse. This is the only instance in which Shakespeare uses the word.
ACTING. PART.
It is a part that I shall blush in acting.