merry-andrew

“Persons who naïvely mistake me for a merry-andrew with an inflated pig’s bladder can never understand that I adore whichever tradition I am striving to follow,” he said in a 1980 interview.

The footmen in yellow were his tumblers and trumpeters, and those in blue his merry-andrew, his apothecary, and his spokesman.

Cousin Thompson—the ex-grocer of Haggart's Cross—considered swallow-tails and white chokers to be fanciful nonsense: he would not make a merry-andrew of himself to please anybody.

But his chief delight was in pursuing the profession of a juggler, mountebank, or merry-andrew, among the lowest rabble.

If I were to charge a battery, I’d only look like a merry-andrew after all; men will not respect what is only laughable.