A contemporary woodcut shows Tabarin in the dress of a clown, but with a gallant moustache and pointed beard, carrying a wooden sword, like his distant puppet descendant Mr. Punch, — which would trip him up— and wearing a soft grey felt hat capable of assuming countless amusing shapes in his deft fingers. Tabarin from French tabard denotes a short cloak of the kind the commedia dell’arte figure Scaramouche wears.
Source: Tabarin – Wikipedia
Tim B.
“Chapeaugraphy, occasionally anglicised to chapography, is a novelty act and panhandling trick in which a ring-shaped piece of felt is manipulated to look like various types of hats. The act originated in 1618 with Parisian street performer Tabarin, the most famous of the charlatans who combined a French version of commedia dell’arte with a quack medicine show. ”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapeaugraphy