Thomas Hearne (_Benedictus Abbas_, i, p. 52) says that he went round
like a quack doctor to country fairs, and therefore rashly supposed him
to have been the original merry-andrew.

Andrew Boorde was no doubt a learned physician, and he has left two
amusing and often sensible works on domestic hygiene and medicine, but
his most entertaining book is _The Fyrst Boke of the Introduction of
Knowledge. The whyche dothe teache a man to speake parte of all maner of
languages, and to know the usage and fashion of all maner of countreys.
And for to know the moste parte of all maner of coynes of money, the
whych is currant in every region. Made by Andrew Borde, of Physycke
Doctor. Dedycated to the right honourable, and gracious lady Mary
daughter of our soverayne Lorde Kyng Henry the eyght_ (c. 1547). The
Englishman describes himself and his foibles--his fickleness, his
fondness for new fashions and his obstinacy--in lively verse. Then
follows a geographical description of the country, followed by a model
dialogue in the Cornish language. Each country in turn is dealt with on
similar lines. His other authentic works are: _Here foloweth a
Compendyous Regimente or Dyetary of health, made in Mountpyllor_ (Thomas
Colwell, 1562), of which there are undated and doubtless earlier
editions; _The Brevyary of Health_ (1547?); _The Princyples of
Astronamy_ (1547?); "The Peregrination of Doctor Board," printed by
Thomas Hearne in _Benedictus Abbas Petroburgensis_, vol. ii. (1735); _A
Pronostycacyon or an Almanacke for the yere of our lorde MCCCCCXLV. made
by Andrew Boorde_. His _Itinerary of Europe_ and _Treatyse upon Berdes_
are lost. Several jest-books are attributed to him without
authority--_The Merie Tales of the Mad Men of Gotam_ (earliest extant
edition, 1630), _Scogin's Jests_ (1626), _A mery jest of the Mylner of
Abyngton, with his wyfe, and his daughter, and of two poore scholers of
Cambridge_ (printed by Wynkyn de Worde), and a Latin poem, _Nos
Vagabunduli_.

See Dr F.J. Furnivall's reprint of the _Introduction_ and some other
selections for the Early English Text Society (new series, 1870).

BOOS, MARTIN (1762-1825), German Roman Catholic theologian, was born at
Huttenried in Bavaria on the 25th of December 1762. Orphaned at the age
of four, he was reared by an uncle at Augsburg, who finally sent him to
the university of Dillingen. There he laid the foundation of the modest
piety by which his whole life was distingui