subs. (common).—See quot. 1785. Also MR. MERRYMAN.

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  1673.  DRYDEN, Epilogue to the University of Oxford.

        The Italian MERRY-ANDREWS took their place,
And quite dcbauched the stage with lewd grimace.

2

  1710.  ROCHESTER, Poems, p. 56.

        They ne’er had sent to Paris for such fancies,
As monsters’ heads and MERRY-ANDREW’S dances.

3

  1732.  FIELDING, The Mock Doctor, i. 1. I waited on a Gentleman at Oxford, where I learnt very near as much as my Master; from whence I attended a travelling Physician six Years, under the facetious Denomination of a MERRY ANDREW, where I learnt Physick.

4

  1770.  SAINT-FOIX, Essays upon Paris, ii. 64, ii. cap. 6. The MERRY ANDREWS told stories.

5

  1785.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. MERRY ANDREW or MR. MERRYMAN, the jack-pudding, jester, or zany of a mountebank, usually dressed in a party-colored coat.

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  1785.  BURNS, The Jolly Beggars, R. iii.

        Poor MERRY ANDREW in the neuk
  Sat guzzling wi’ a tinkler-hizzie.
    Ibid. S. iii.
Poor ANDREW that tumbles for sport.

7

  1842.  LEVER, Jack Hinton, ch. iv. I wonder how a Christian would make a MERRY ANDREW of himself by wearing such clothes.

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