Note 62 — CAVALIER SONGS AND BALLADS. (continued 2)

Pudding John, or Jack Pudding, was a proverbial expression of the times for a Merry Andrew. In an old English-German Dictionary it is explained thus:—“Jack-Pudding, un buffon de theatre, deliciæ populi, ein Hanswurst, Pickelhering.” The term was applied as a soubriquet to any man who played the fool to serve another person’s ends. “And first Sir Thomas Wrothe (Jack Pudding to Prideaux the post-master) had his cue to go high, and feele the pulse of the hous.” History of Independency, p. 69 (4to, 1648).