1693: William Congreve, The Old BachelorAraminta, come, I'll talk seriously to you now; could you but see with my eyes the buffoonery of one scene of address, a lover, set out with all his equipage and appurtenances; ...
1814: Jane Austen, Mansfield ParkOne could not expect anybody to take such a part. Nothing but buffoonery from beginning to end.
before 1891: P.T. Barnum, quoted in The Life of Phineas T. Barnumhttp://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1576The Temperance Reform was too serious a matter for trifling jokes and buffooneries.
