Merry Andrew

• merry andrew
• merry-andrew
• merryandrew

Originally associated with a specific act at Bartholomew Fair; later said to have come from the name of Andrew Boorde.

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Merry Andrew (plural Merry Andrews)

1. (idiomatic) A person who clowns publicly; a buffoon; an entertainer's assistant.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973, p. 438:

     Instead, therefore, of answering my landlady, the puppet-show man ran out to punish his Merry-Andrew [...]

   • 1873, William Lucas Collins, chapter III, in Plautus and Terence, page 31:

     The games of the circus—the wild-beast fight and the gladiators, the rope-dancers, the merry-andrews, and the posture-masters,—were more to their taste than clever intrigue and brilliant dialogue.

   • 1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber 1992, p. 155:

     One of them, the eldest, was a sort of merry andrew and was not above dressing the part with a weird cap of jackal's skin with many hanging tails and tassels.