subs. phr. (common).—A street clown: a mountebank: from the hero of a slang song. Billy was a real person, semi-idiotic, and though in dirt and rags, fancied himself a swell of the first water. Occasionally he came out with real witticisms. He was a well-known street character about the East-end of London, and died in Whitechapel Workhouse. These merry Andrews are otherwise called JIM CROWS and SALTIMBANCOS; French, pitre, saltimbanque.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, vol. III., p. 148. BILLY BARLOW is another supposed comic character, that usually accompanies either the street-dancers or acrobats in their peregrinations. The dress consists of a cocked-hat and red feather, a soldier’s coat (generally a sergeant’s with sash), white trousers with the legs tucked into Wellington boots, a large tin eye-glass, and an old broken and ragged umbrella.
