Note 709 — Chapter IX · THE SWORD-DANCE
Reading edition
Cotgrave, ‘Dancer les Buffons, To daunce a morris.’ The term ‘the madman’s morris’ appears as the name of the dance in The Figure of Nine (temp. Charles II); cf. Furnivall, Laneham’s Letter, clxii. The buffon is presumably the ‘fool’; cf. Cotgrave, ‘Buffon: m. A buffoon, jeaster, sycophant, merrie fool, sportfull companion: one that lives by making others merrie.’