1595–1605; < Latin Fescennīnus of, belonging to Fescennia, a town in Etruria noted for jesting and scurrilous verse; see -ine 1
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While you lived, taste kept the French drama pure; and it was the congenial business of English playwrights to foist their rustic grossness and their large Fescennine jests into the urban page of Moliere.
From Letters to Dead Authors by Lang, Andrew
Fescennina, etc.: the rude Fescennine farce grew from rites like these, where rustic taunts were hurled in alternate verse; and the pleasing license, tolerated from year to year, gambolled, etc.
From Social life at Rome in the Age of Cicero by Fowler, W. Warde
These Fescennine Songs were rude dialogues, in which the country people assailed and ridiculed one another in extempore verses, and which were introduced as an amusement in various festivals.
From A Smaller History of Rome by Smith, William, Sir
The germ of Roman satire is undoubtedly to be found in the rude Fescennine verses, the rough and licentious jests and buffoonery of the harvest-home and the vintage thrown into quasi-lyrical form.
From English Satires by Smeaton, William Henry Oliphant
While you lived, taste kept the French drama pure; and it was the congenial business of English playwrights to foist their rustic grossness and their large Fescennine jests into the urban page of Moli�re.
From Letters to Dead Authors by Lang, Andrew
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