Definition of "comedian"

[…] the quick comediansExtemporally will stage us, and presentOur Alexandrian revels;

c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene ii]

I Don’t pretend to write a Preface, either to point out the Beauties, or to excuse the Errors, a judicious Reader may possibly discover in the following Scenes, but to give those excellent Comedians their Due, to whom, in some Measure the best Dramatick Writers are oblig’d.

1714, Susanna Centlivre, The Wonder, London: E. Curll and A. Bettesworth, Preface

When a Comedian, celebrated for his excellence in the part of Shylock, first undertook that character, he made daily visits to the center of business, the ’Change, and the adjacent Coffee-houses; that by a frequent intercourse and conversation with “the unforeskinn’d race,” he might habituate himself to their air and deportment.

1755, George Colman, The Connaisseur‎, volume 1, London: R. Baldwin, page 1

Becky, the nightingale, took the flowers which he threw to her and pressed them to her heart with the air of a consummate comedian.

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 51, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848

Neither is it recorded that the writings of those old Comedians were supprest, though the acting of them were forbid;

1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], page 5

[…] the Dramatic Author, in whom the French glory most, and whom they justly place at the head of all their Comedians, is, the famous Moliere.

1783, Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, London: Whitestone et al., Volume 3, Lecture 47, p. 377