Tabarin

thumb|Tabarin, detail from the title page of Inventaire universel des oeuvres de Tabarin, 1622 thumb|Title page of Inventaire universel des oeuvres de Tabarin, 1622

Tabarin was the street name of Anthoine Girard (c. 1584 – 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 viols. More formal contemporary performances were confined to the royal court or to the Hotel de Bourgogne, overseen by the medieval guild that had the monopoly of theatrical performances in Paris.