III (continued 2)

II

But by what I've seen, and where I've been, I've always found it so, That if you wish to learn to live Too much you cannot know. For you must now be wide-awake, If a living you would make, So I'll advise what course to take To be a Leary Man.

II

Go first to costermongery, To every fakement get a-fly, [1] And pick up all their slangery, But let this be your plan; Put up with no Kieboshery, [2] But look well after poshery, [3] And cut teetotal sloshery, [4] And get drunk when you can.

IV

And when you go to spree about, Let it always be your pride To have a white tile on your nob [5 ] And bull-dog by your side Your fogle you must flashly tie [6] Each word must patter flashery, [7] And hit cove's head to smashery, To be a Leary Man.

V

To Covent Garden or Billingsgate You of a morn must not be late, But your donkey drive at a slashing rate, And first be if you can. From short pipe you must your bacca blow And if your donkey will not go, To lick him you must not be slow But well his hide must tan.

VI

The fakement conn'd by knowing rooks Must be well known to you, And if you come to fibbery, You must mug one or two. Then go to St Giles's rookery, [8] And live up some strange nookery, Of no use domestic cookery, To be a Leary Man.

VII

Then go to pigeon fancery And know each breed by quiz of eye, Bald-heads from skin-'ems by their fly, Go wrong you never can. All fighting coves too you must know Ben Caunt as well as Bendigo, And to each mill be sure to go, And be one of the van.

VIII

Things that are found before they're lost, Be always first to find. Restore dogs for a pound or two You'll do a thing that's kind, And you must sport a blue billy, Or a yellow wipe tied loosily [9] Round your scrag for bloaks to see [10] That you're a Leary Man

IX

At knock-'em-downs and tiddlywink, To be a sharp you must not shrink, But be a brick and sport your chink [11] To win must be your plan. And set-toos and Cock-fighting Are things you must take delight in, And always try to be right in And every kidment scan.

X

And bullying and chaffing too, To you should be well known, Your nob be used to bruisery, [12] And hard as any stone. Put the kiebosh on the dibbery, Know a Joey from a tibbery, And now and then have a black eye, To be a Leary Man.

XI

To fairs and races go must you, And get in rows and fights a few, And stopping out all night it's true Must often be your plan. And as through the world you budgery, Get well awake to fudgery, And rub off every grudgery, And do the best you can.

XII

But mummery and slummery You must keep in your mind, For every day, mind what I say, Fresh fakements you will find. But stick to this while you can crawl. To stand 'till you're obliged to fall, And when you're wide awake to all You'll be a Leary Man.

[1: dodge; learn] [2: nonsense] [3: money] [4: drink] [5: hat; head] [6: necktie] [7: talk slang] [8: Notes] [9: handkerchief] [10: neck; men] [11: good fellow; money] [12: head; pugilism]

"A HUNDRED STRETCHES HENCE" [Notes] [1859]

[From The Vocabulum: or Rogues Lexicon, by G. W. MATSELL, New York].

I

Oh! where will be the culls of the bing [1] A hundred stretches hence? [2] The bene morts who sweetly sing, [3] A hundred stretches hence? The autum-cacklers, autum-coves, [4] The jolly blade who wildly roves; [5] And where the buffer, bruiser, blowen, [6] And all the cops, and beaks so knowin, [7] A hundred stretches hence?

II

And where the swag so bleakly pinched [8] A hundred stretches hence? The thimbles, slangs, and danglers filched, [9] A hundred stretches hence? The chips, the fawneys, chatty-feeders, [10] The bugs, the boungs, and well-filled readers; [11] And where the fence, and snoozing ken, [12] With all the prigs and lushing men, [13] A hundred stretches hence?

III

Played out they lay, it will be said A hundred stretches hence; With shovels they were put to bed [14] A hundred stretches since! Some rubbed to wit had napped a winder, [15] And some were scragged and took a blinder, [16] Planted the swag and lost to sight, [17] We'll bid them one and all good-night, A hundred stretches hence.

[1: publicans] [2: years] [3: pretty women] [4: married women and men] [5: boon companion] [6: smuggler; pugilist; whore] [7: police; magistrate] [8: plunder cleverly stolen] [9: watches; chains; seals; stolen] [10: money; rings; spoons] [11: breast-pins; purses; pocket-book] [12: receiver of stolen goods; brothel] [13: thieves; drunkards] [14: buried] [15: taken to gaol; had cheated a life sentence] [16: hanged; drowned oneself] [17: got rid of the plunder]

THE CHICKALEARY COVE [Notes] [c. 1864]

I

I'm a 'Chickaleary bloke' with my one, two, three, [1] Whitechapel was the village I was born in, For to get me on the hop, or on my tibby drop, [2] You must wake up very early in the morning. I have a rorty gal, also a knowing pal, [3] And merrily together we jog on, I doesn't care a flatch, as long as I've a tach, [4] Some pannum for my chest, and a tog on. [5] I'm a Chickaleary bloke with my one, two, three, Whitechapel was the village I born in, For to get me on the hop, or on my tibby drop, You must wake up very early in the morning.

II

Now kool my downy kicksies—the style for me, [6] Built on a plan werry naughty, The stock around my squeeze a guiver colour see, [7] And the vestat with the bins so rorty, [8] My tailor serves you well, from a perger to a swell, [9] At Groves's you're safe to make a sure pitch, [10] For ready yenom down, there ain't a shop in town, [11] Can lick Groves in The Cut as well as Shoreditch. [12] I'm a Chickaleary bloke, etc.

III

Off to Paris I shall go, to show a thing or two To the dipping blokes what hangs about the caffes, [13] How to do a cross-fam, for a super, or a slang, [14] And to bustle them grand'armes I'd give the office: Now my pals I'm going to slope, see you soon again, I hope, My young woman is awaiting, so be quick; Now join in a chyike, the jolly we all like, [15] I'm off with a party to the Vic. I'm a Chickaleary bloke, etc.

[1: Whitechapel swell] [2: got the better of me] [3: flashly dressed; clever] [4: halfpenny; hat] [5: eatables; coat] [6: look; trousers flashy cut] [7: neck; flash] [8: vest; pockets] [9: teetotaller] [10: place] [11: money] [12: beat] [13: pickpockets] [14: watch; chain] [15: salute; shout]

BLOOMING ÆSTHETIC [1882]

[From The Rag, 30 Sept.].

He

I

A dealer-in-coke young man, A wallop-his-moke young man, A slosher-of-pals, A spooning-with-gals, [1] An ought-to-be-blowed young man.

II

A tell-a-good-whopper young man, [2] A slogging-a-copper young man, [3] A pay-on-the-nod, [4] An always-in-quod, [5] A sure-to-be-scragged young man. [6]

III

A Sunday-flash-togs young man, [7] A pocket-of-hogs young man, [8] A save-all-his-rhino, [9] A cut-a-big-shine, oh, Will soon-have-a-pub young man

She

I

A powder-and-paint young girl, Not-quite-a-saint young girl, An always-get-tight, [10] A stay-out-all-night, Have-a-kid-in-the-end young girl. [11]

II

Make-a-bloke-a-choke young girl, Love-a-gin-soak young girl, [12] On-the-kerb-come-a-cropper, Run-in-by-a-copper, [13] "Fined-forty-bob "—young girl.

III

A tallow-faced-straight young girl, A never-out-late young girl, A Salvation-mummery, Smoleless-and-glummery, Kid-by-a-captain young girl.

[1: making love] [2: lie] [3: assaulting the police] [4: take unlimited credit] [5: in prison] [6: hung] [7: clothes] [8: silver] [9: money] [10: drunk] [11: child] [12: drunken bout] [13: policeman]

'ARRY AT A POLITICAL PICNIC [By T Milliken in Punch, 11 Oct.]

DEAR CHARLIE.

I

'Ow are yer, my ribstone? Seems scrumtious to write the old name. I 'ave quite lost the ran of you lately. Bin playing some dark little game? [1] I'm keeping mine hup as per usual, fust in the pick of the fun, For wherever there's larks on the tappy there's 'Arry as sure as a gun.

II

The latest new lay's Demonstrations. You've heard on 'em, Charlie, no doubt, For they're at 'em all over the shop. I 'ave 'ad a rare bustle about. All my Saturday arfs are devoted to Politics. Fancy, old chump, Me doing the sawdusty reglar, and follering swells on the stump! [2]

III

But, bless yer, my bloater, it isn't all chin-music, votes, and 'Ear! 'ear!' [3] Or they wouldn't catch me on the ready, or nail me for ninepence. No fear! Percessions I've got a bit tired of, hoof-padding and scrouging's dry rot, [4] But Political Picnics mean sugar to them as is fly to wot's wot.

IV

Went to one on 'em yesterday, Charlie; a reglar old up and down lark. The Pallis free gratis, mixed up with a old country fair in a park, And Rosherville Gardens chucked in, with a dash of the Bean Feast will do, To give you some little idear of our day with Sir Jinks Bottleblue.

V

Make much of us, Charlie? Lor bless you, we might ha' bin blooming Chinese A-doing the rounds at the 'Ealthries. 'Twas regular go as you please. Lawn-tennis, quoits, cricket, and dancing for them as must be on the shove,

But I preferred pecking and prowling, and spotting the mugs making love.

VI

Don't ketch me a-slinging my legs about arter a beast of a ball At ninety degrees in the shade or so, Charlie, old chap, not at all. Athletics 'aint 'ardly my form, and a cutaway coat and tight bags Are the species of togs for yours truly, and lick your loose 'flannels' to rags.

VII

So I let them as liked do a swelter; I sorntered about on the snap. Rum game this yer Politics, Charlie, seems arf talkee-talkee and trap. Jest fancy old Bluebottle letting the 'multitood' pic-nic and lark, And make Battersea Park of his pleasure-grounds, Bathelmy Fair of his park!

VIII

'To show his true love for the People!' sezs one vote-of-thanking tall-talker, And wosn't it rude of a bloke as wos munching a bun to cry 'Walker!' I'm Tory right down to my boots, at a price, and I bellered "'Ear, ear!' But they don't cop yours truly with chaff none the more, my dear Charlie, no fear!"

IX

Old Bottleblue tipped me his flipper, and 'oped I'd 'refreshed,' and all that. [10] 'Wy rather,' sez I, 'wot do you think ?' at which he stared into his 'at, And went a bit red in the gills. Must ha' thought me a muggins, old man, [11] To ask sech a question of 'Arry—as though grabbing short was his plan.

X

I went the rounds proper, I tell yer; 'twas like the free run of a Bar, And Politics wants lots o' wetting. Don't ketch me perched up on a car, Or 'olding a flag-pole no more. No, percessions, dear boy, ain't my fad, But Political Picnics with fireworks, and plenty of swiz ain't 'arf bad.

XI

The palaver was sawdust and treacle. Old Bottleblue buzzed for a bit, And a sniffy young Wiscount in barnacles landed wot 'e thought a 'it; Said old Gladstone wos like Simpson's weapon, a bit of a hass and all jor, When a noisy young Rad in a wideawake wanted to give him what for! [12]

XII

Yah! boo! Turn 'im hout!' sings yours truly, a-thinkin' the fun was at 'and, But, bless yer! 'twas only a sputter. I can't say the meeting looked grand. Five thousand they reckoned us, Charlie, but if so I guess the odd three Were a-spooning about in the halley's, or lappin' up buns and Bohea.

XIII

The band and the 'opping wos prime though, and 'Arry in course wos all there. I 'ad several turns with a snappy young party with stror coloured 'air. Her name she hinfonned me wos Polly, and wen in my 'appiest style, I sez, 'Polly is nicer than Politics!' didn't she colour and smile?

XIV

We got back jest in time for the Fireworks, a proper flare-up, and no kid, Which finished that day's Demonstration, an' must 'ave cost many a quid. Wot fireworks and park-feeds do Demonstrate, Charlie, I'm blest if I see, And I'm blowed if I care a brass button, so long as I get a cheap spree.

XV

The patter's all bow-wow, of course, but it goes with the buns and the beer. If it pleases the Big-wigs to spout, wy it don't cost bus nothink to cheer. Though they ain't got the 'ang of it, Charlie, the toffs ain't—no go and no spice! Why, I'd back Barney Crump at our Singsong to lick 'em two times out o' twice!

XVI

Still I'm all for the Lords and their lot, Charlie. Rads are my 'error, you know. Change R into C and you've got 'em, and 'Arry 'ates anythink low. So if Demonstrations means skylarks, and lotion as much as you'll carry, These 'busts of spontanyous opinion' may reckon all round upon 'Arry.

[1: sight] [2: nonsense] [3: talking] [4: walking] [5: eating; fools] [6: trousers] [7: prowl] [8: Notes] [9: catch] [10: shook hands] [11: face; fool] [12: something to talk about]

"RUM COVES THAT RELIEVE US" [1887]

[By HEINRICH BAUMANN in Londonismen].

I

Rum coves that relieve us [1] Of clunkers and pieces, [2] Is gin'rally lagged, [3] Or wuss luck gets scragg'd. [4]

II

Are smashers and divers [5] And noble contrivers Not sold to the beaks [6] By the coppers an' sneaks? [7]

III

Yet moochin' arch-screevers, [8] Concoctin' deceivers, Chaps as reap like their own What by tothers were sown;

IV

Piratical fakers [9] Of bosh by the acres, These muck-worms of trash Cut, oh, a great dash.

V

But, there, it don't matter Since, to cut it still fatter, By 'ook and by crook Ve've got up this book.

VI

Tell ye 'ow? Vy in rum kens, [10] In flash cribs and slum dens, [11] I' the alleys and courts, 'Mong the doocedest sorts;

VII

When jawin' with Jillie Or Mag and 'er Billie, Ve shoved down in black Their illigant clack. [12]

VIII

So from hartful young dodgers, From vaxy old codgers, [13] From the blowens ve got [14] Soon to know vot is vot.

IX

Now then there is yer sumptuous Tuck-in of most scrumptious, And dainty mag-pie! [15] Will ye jes' come and try?

[1: thieves] [2: money] [3: imprisoned] [4: hung] [5: counterfeiters; pickpockets] [6: magistrates] [7: police; informers] [8: prowling; begging letter writers] [9: writers of "blood and thunder"] [10: queer places] [11: thieves' resorts] [12: talk] [13: men] [14: prostitutes] [15: speech]

VILLON'S GOOD-NIGHT [1887]

[By WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY].

I

You bible-sharps that thump on tubs, [1] You lurkers on the Abram-sham, [2] You sponges miking round the pubs, [3] You flymy titters fond of flam, [4] You judes that clobber for the stramm, [5] You ponces good at talking tall, With fawneys on your dexter famm— [6] A mot's good-night to one and all! [7]

II

Likewise you molls that flash your bubs [8] For swells to spot and stand you sam, [9] You bleeding bonnets, pugs, and subs, You swatchel-coves that pitch and slam. [10] You magsmen bold that work the cram, [11] You flats and joskins great and small, Gay grass-widows and lawful-jam— [12] A mot's good-night to one and all!

III

For you, you coppers, narks, and dubs, [13] Who pinched me when upon the snam, [14] And gave me mumps and mulligrubs [15] With skilly and swill that made me clam, [16] At you I merely lift my gam— [17] I drink your health against the wall! [18] That is the sort of man I am, A mot's good-night to one and all!

The Farewell.

Paste 'em, and larrup 'em, and lamm! Give Kennedy, and make 'em crawl! [19] I do not care one bloody damn, A mot's good-night to one and all.

[1: false clericos] [2: beggar feigning sickness] [3: cadgers; loafing] [4: saucy girls; non-sense] [5: women dress; game] [6: rings; right hand] [7: harlot] [8: prostitutes; expose paps] [9: see; pay for] [10: Punch-and-judy-man] [11: pattering tradesman] [12: wife] [13: police; informers; warders] [14: arrested; stealing] [15: "the blues"] [16: refuse food] [17: leg] [18: urinate] [19: thrash them and make them stir]

VILLON'S STRAIGHT TIP TO ALL CROSS COVES [Notes] [1887]

[By WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY].

'Tout aux tavernes et aux filles'

I

Suppose you screeve, or go cheap-jack? [1] Or fake the broads? or fig a nag? Or thimble-rig? or knap a yack? Or pitch a snide? or smash a rag? Suppose you duff? or nose and lag? Or get the straight, and land your pot? How do you melt the multy swag? Booze and the blowens cop the lot.

II

Fiddle, or fence, or mace, or mack; Or moskeneer, or flash the drag; Dead-lurk a crib, or do a crack; Pad with a slang, or chuck a fag; Bonnet, or tout, or mump and gag; Rattle the tats, or mark the spot You cannot bank a single stag: Booze and the blowens cop the lot.

III

Suppose you try a different tack, And on the square you flash your flag? At penny-a-lining make your whack, Or with the mummers mug and gag? For nix, for nix the dibbs you bag At any graft, no matter what! Your merry goblins soon stravag: Booze and the blowens cop the lor.

The Moral.

It's up-the-spout and Charley-Wag With wipes and tickers and what not! Until the squeezer nips your scrag, Booze and the blowens cop the lot.

[1: See Notes for translation]

CULTURE IN THE SLUMS [1887]

[By WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY: "Inscribed to an intense poet"].

I. Rondeau.

I

"O crikey, Bill!" she ses to me, she ses. "Look sharp," ses she, "with them there sossiges. Yea! sharp with them there bags of mysteree! [1] For lo!" she ses, "for lo! old pal," ses she, [2] "I'm blooming peckish, neither more nor less." [3]

II

Was it not prime—I leave you all to guess How prime! to have a jude in love's distress [4] Come spooning round, and murmuring balmilee, [5] "O crikey, Bill!"

III

For in such rorty wise doth Love express [6] His blooming views, and asks for your address, And makes it right, and does the gay and free. I kissed her—I did so! And her and me Was pals. And if that ain't good business. O crikey, Bill!

II. Villanelle.

I

Now ain't they utterly too—too? [7] (She ses, my Missus mine, ses she), Them flymy little bits of Blue. [8]

II

Joe, just you kool 'em—nice and skew [9] Upon our old meogginee, Now ain't they utterly too-too?

III

They're better than a pot'n a screw, They're equal to a Sunday spree, Them flymy little bits of Blue!

IV

Suppose I put 'em up the flue, [10] And booze the profits, Joe? Not me. [11] Now ain't they utterly too-too ?

V

I do the 'Igh Art fake, I do. Joe, I'm consummate; and I see Them flymy little bits of Blue.

VI

Which, Joe, is why I ses to you— Æsthetic-like, and limp, and free— Now ain't they utterly too-too, Them flymy little bits of Blue?

III. Ballade.

I

I often does a quiet read At Booty Shelley's poetry; [12] I thinks that Swinburne at a screed Is really almost too-too fly; At Signor Vagna's harmony [13] I likes a merry little flutter; I've had at Pater many a shy; In fact, my form's the Bloomin' Utter.

II

My mark's a tidy little feed, And 'Enery Irving's gallery, To see old 'Amlick do a bleed, And Ellen Terry on the die, Or Franky's ghostes at hi-spy, And parties carried on a shutter [14] Them vulgar Coupeaus is my eye! In fact, my form's the Bloomin' Utter.

III

The Grosvenor's nuts—it is, indeed! I goes for 'Olman 'Unt like pie. It's equal to a friendly lead [15] To see B. Jones's judes go by. Stanhope he makes me fit to cry, Whistler he makes me melt like butter, Strudwick he makes me flash my cly— [16] In fact, my form's the Bloomin' Utter.

Envoy.

I'm on for any Art that's 'Igh! I talks as quite as I can splutter; I keeps a Dado on the sly; In fact, my form's the Blooming Utter!

[1: sausages] [2: friend] [3: very hungry] [4: girl] [5: fondling; softly] [6: thus expressively] [7: nice] [8: i.e. china] [9: look at] [10: pawn] [11: drink] [12: Botticelli(?)] [13: Wagner(?)] [14: The Corsican Brothers(?)] [15: Notes] [16: spend money]

"TOTTIE" [1887]

[By "DAGONET" (G. R. SIMS) in Referee, 7 Nov.].

I

As she walked along the street With her little 'plates of meat,' [1] And the summer sunshine falling On her golden 'Barnet Fair,' [2] Bright as angels from the skies Were her dark blue 'mutton pies.' [3] In my 'East and West' Dan Cupid [4] Shot a shaft and left it there.

II

She'd a Grecian 'I suppose,' [5] And of 'Hampstead Heath' two rows, [6] In her 'Sunny South' that glistened [7] Like two pretty strings of pearls; Down upon my 'bread and cheese' [8] Did I drop and murmur, 'Please Be my "storm and strife," dear Tottie, [9] O, you darlingest of girls!'

III

Then a bow-wow by her side, [10] Who till then had stood and tried A 'Jenny Lee' to banish, [11] Which was on his 'Jonah's whale,' [12] Gave a hydrophobia bark, (She cried, 'What a Noah's Ark!') [13] And right through my 'rank and riches' [14] Did my 'cribbage pegs' assail. [15]

IV

Ere her bull-dog I could stop She had called a 'ginger pop,' [16] Who said, 'What the "Henry Meville" [17] Do you think you're doing there?' And I heard as off I slunk, 'Why, the fellow's "Jumbo's trunk!" [18] And the 'Walter Joyce' was Tottie's [19] With the golden 'Barnet Fair.' [20]

[1: feet] [2: hair] [3: eyes] [4: breast] [5: nose] [6: teeth] [7: mouth] [8: knees] [9: wife] [10: dog] [11: flee] [12: tail] [13: lark] [14: breeches] [15: legs] [16: slop = policeman] [17: devil] [18: drunk] [19: voice] [20: hair]

A PLANK BED BALLAD [1888]

[By "DAGONET" (G. R. SIMS) in Referee, 12 Feb.].

I

Understand, if you please, I'm a travelling thief, The gonophs all call me the gypsy; [1] By the rattler I ride when I've taken my brief, [2] And I sling on my back an old kipsey. [3]

II

If I pipe a good chat, why, I touch for the wedge, [4] But I'm not a "particular" robber; I smug any snowy I see on the hedge, [5] And I ain't above daisies and clobber. [6]

III

One day I'd a spree with two firms in my brigh, [7] And a toy and a tackle—both red 'uns; [8] And a spark prop a pal (a good screwsman) and I [9] Had touched for in working two dead 'uns.

IV

I was taking a ducat to get back to town [10] (I had come by the rattler to Dover), When I saw as a reeler was roasting me brown, [11] And he rapped, "I shall just turn you over." [12]

V

I guyed, but the reeler he gave me hot beef, [13] And a scuff came about me and hollered; I pulled out a chive, but I soon came to grief, [14] And with screws and a james I was collared. [15]

VI

I was fullied, and then got three stretch for the job,[16] And my trip—cuss the day as I seen her— [17] She sold off my home to some pals in her mob, [18] For a couple of foont and ten deener. [19]

VII

Oh, donnys and omees, what gives me the spur, [20] Is, I'm told by a mug (he tells whoppers), [21] That I ought to have greased to have kept out of stir [22] The dukes of the narks and the coppers. [23]

[1: boys] [2: rail; ticket] [3: basket] [4: see; horse; go for; silver plate] [5: steal; linen] [6: boots; clothes] [7: £5 notes; pocket] [8: watch; chain; gold] [9: diamond pin] [10: ticket] [11: detective; closely scanning me] [12: said; search you] [13: ran; tea; chased me] [14: knife] [15: burglars tools; caught] [16: remanded; years] [17: mistress] [18: friends; set] [19: £5 notes; shillings] [20: girl; fellows] [21: man] [22: bribed] [23: hands; detectives; police]

THE RONDEAU OF THE KNOCK [1890]

[By "DAGONET" (G. R. SIMS) in Referee, 20 Ap. p. 7].

I

He took the knock! No more with jaunty air [1] He'll have the "push" that made the punter stare; No more in monkeys now odds on he'll lay [2] And make the ever grumbling fielder gay. One plunger more has had his little flare [3] And then came to Monday when he couldn't "square"; [4] Stripped of his plunees a poor denuded J [5] He took the knock! Where is he now? Ah! echo answers "where"? Upon the turf he had his little day And when, stone-broke, he could no longer pay [6] Leaving the ring to gnash its teeth and swear He took the knock!

[1: gave in] [2: £500] [3: opportunity] [4: pay up] [5: fellow] [6: ruined]

THE RHYME OF THE RUSHER [1892]

[By DOSS CHIDERDOSS in Sporting Times, 29 Oct. In Appropriate Rhyming Slanguage].

I

I was out one night on the strict teetote, [1] 'Cause I couldn't afford a drain; I was wearing a leaky I'm afloat, [2] And it started to France and Spain. [3] But a toff was mixed in a bull and cow, [4] And I helped him to do a bunk; [5] He had been on the I'm so tap, and now [6] He was slightly elephant's trunk. [7]

II

He offered to stand me a booze, so I [8] Took him round to the "Mug's Retreat;" And my round the houses I tried to dry [9] By the Anna Maria's heat. [10] He stuck to the I'm so to drown his cares, While I went for the far and near, [11] Until the clock on the apples and pears [12] Gave the office for us to clear. [13]

III

Then round at the club we'd another bout, And I fixed him at nap until I had turned his skyrockets inside out, [14] And had managed my own to fill, Of course, I had gone on the half-ounce trick,[15] And we quarrelled, and came to blows; But I fired him out of the Roiy quick, And he fell on his I suppose. [16]

IV

And he laid there, weighing out prayers for me, Without hearing the plates of meat [17] Of a slop, who pinched him for "d. and d." [18] And disturbing a peaceful beat, And I smiled as I closed my two mince pies [19] In my insect promenade; For out of his nibs I had taken a rise, [20] And his stay on the spot was barred.

V

Next morning I brushed up my Barnet Fair, [21] And got myself up pretty smart; Then I sallied forth with a careless air, And contented raspberry tart. [22] At the first big pub I resolved, if pos., [23] That I'd sample my lucky star; So I passed a flimsy on to the boss [24] Who served drinks at the there you are. [25]

VI

He looked at the note, and the air began With his language to pen and ink; [26] For the mug I'd fleeced had been his head man, [27] And had done him for lots of chink. [28] I'm blessed if my luck doesn't hum and ha, For I argued the point with skill; But the once a week made me go ta-ta [29] For a month on the can't keep still. [30]

[1: without drink] [2: coat] [3: rain] [4: swell; row] [5: get away] [6: rap] [7: drunk] [8: drink] [9: trousers] [10: fire] [11: beer] [12: stairs] [13: warning] [14: pockets] [15: bounce] [16: nose] [17: feet] [18: policeman; arrested; drunk and disorderly] [19: eyes ] [20: him; advantage] [21: hair] [22: heart] [23: possible] [24: banknote] [25: bar] [26: stink] [27: fellow; cheated] [28: robbed; money] [29: beak] [30: everlasting wheel=mill]

WOT CHER! [Notes] or, Knocked 'em in the Old Kent Rd. [1892]

[By ALBERT CHEVALIER].

I

Last week down our alley come a toff, [1] Nice old geezer with a nasty cough, [2] Sees my Missus, takes 'is topper off [3] In a very gentlemanly way! "Ma'am," says he, "I 'ave some news to tell, Your rich Uncle Tom of Camberwell, Popped off recent, which it ain't a sell, [4] Leaving you 'is little Donkey Shay." "Wot cher!" all the neighbours cried, "Who're yer goin' to meet, Bill? Have yer bought the street, Bill?" Laugh! I thought I should 'ave died, Knock'd 'em in the Old Kent Road! [5]

II

Some says nasty things about the moke, [6] One cove thinks 'is leg is really broke, [7] That's 'is envy, cos we're carriage folk, Like the toffs as rides in Rotten Row! Straight! it woke the alley up a bit, [8] Thought our lodger would 'ave 'ad a fit, When my missus, who's a real wit, Says, "I 'ates a Bus, because it's low!" "Wot cher!" &c.

III

When we starts the blessed donkey stops, He won't move, so out I quickly 'ops, Pals start whackin' him, when down he drops, Someone says he wasn't made to go. Lor it might 'ave been a four-in-'and, My Old Dutch knows 'ow to do the grand, [9] First she bows, and then she waves 'er 'and, Calling out we're goin' for a blow! "Wot cher!" &c.

IV

Ev'ry evenin' on the stroke of five, Me and Missus takes a little drive, You'd say, "Wonderful they're still alive," If you saw that little donkey go. I soon showed him that 'e 'd have to do, Just whatever he was wanted to, Still I shan't forget that rowdy crew, 'Ollerin' "Woa! steady! Neddy Woa! "Wot cher!" &c.

[1: well-dressed man] [2: man] [3: hat] [4: died; mistake] [5: made them stare] [6: donkey] [7: fellow] [8: no mistake] [9: wife; make a show]

OUR LITTLE NIPPER [Notes] [1893]

[By ALBERT CHEVALIER].

I

I'm just about the proudest man that walks, I've got a little nipper, when 'e talks [1] I'll lay yer forty shiners to a quid [2] You'll take 'im for the father, me the kid. Now as I never yet was blessed wi' wealf, I've 'ad to bring that youngster up myself, And though 'is education 'as been free, 'E's allus 'ad the best of tips from me. [3] And 'e's a little champion, Do me proud well 'e's a knock out, [4] Takes after me and ain't a bit too tall. 'E calls 'is mother "Sally," And 'is father "good old pally," And 'e only stands about so 'igh, that's all!

II

'E gits me on at skittles and 'e flukes, [5] And when 'e wants to 'e can use 'is "dooks," [6] You see 'im put 'em up, well there, it's great, 'E takes a bit of lickin at 'is weight; 'E'll stick up like a Briton for 'is pals, An' ain't 'e just a terror with the gals; I loves to see 'im cuttin' of a dash, A walkin' down our alley on the mash. [7] There, 'e's a little champion, Do me proud well 'e's a knock out, I've knowed 'im take a girl on six foot tall; 'E'll git 'imself up dossy, [8] Say I'm goin' out wi' Flossie, An' 'e only stands about so 'igh, that's all.

III

I used to do a gin crawl e'vry night, [9] An' very, very often come 'ome tight, [10] But now of all sich 'abits I've got rid, I al'us wants to git 'ome to the kid. In teachin' 'im I takes a regular pride, Not books, of course, for them 'e can't abide, But artful little ikey little ways, [11] As makes the people sit up where we stays. [12]

(Spoken)—Only last Sunday me an' the missus took 'im out for a walk—I should say 'e took us out. As we was a comin' 'ome I says to the old gal "Let's pop into the 'Broker's Arms' and 'ave a drop o' beer?" She didn't raise no objection so in we goes, followed by 'is nibs—I'd forgotten all about 'im—I goes to the bar and calls for two pots of four 'alf; suddenly I feels 'im a tuggin' at my coat, "Wot's up?" sez I; "Wot did yer call for?" sez 'e; "Two pots of four 'alf," sez I; "Oh," sez 'e, "ain't mother goin' to 'ave none?"

Well, 'e's a little champion, Do me proud well 'e's a knock out, "Drink up," sez 'e, "Three pots, miss, it's my call." I sez "Now Jacky, Jacky;" 'E sez, "And a screw of baccy," And 'e only stands about so 'igh, that's all.

[1: child] [2: shillings; pound] [3: information] [4: Notes] [5: Notes] [6: hands] [7: courting] [8: dressy] [9: round of ginshops] [10: drunk] [11: funny] [12: stare]

THE COSTER'S SERENADE [1894]

[By ALBERT CHEVALIER].

I

You ain't forgotten yet that night in May, Down at the Welsh 'Arp, which is 'Endon way, You fancied winkles and a pot of tea, "Four 'alf" I murmured's "good enough for me." "Give me a word of 'ope that I may win"— You prods me gently with the winkle pin— We was as 'appy as could be that day Down at the Welsh 'Arp, which is 'Endon way.

Oh, 'Arriet I'm waiting, waiting for you my dear, Oh, 'Arriet I'm waiting, waiting alone out here; When that moon shall cease to shine, False will be this 'eart of mine, I'm bound to go on lovin' yer my dear; d'ye 'ear?

II

You ain't forgotten 'ow we drove that day Down to the Welsh 'Arp, in my donkey shay; Folks with a "chy-ike" shouted, "Ain't they smart?" [1] You looked a queen, me every inch a Bart. Seemed that the moke was saying "Do me proud;" Mine is the nobbiest turn-out in the crowd; [2] Me in my "pearlies" felt a toff that day, [3] Down at the Welsh 'Arp, which is Endon way. Oh, 'Arriet, &c.

III

Eight months ago and things is still the same, You're known about 'ere by your maiden name, I'm getting chivied by my pals 'cos why? [4] Nightly I warbles 'ere for your reply. Summer 'as gone, and it's a freezin' now, Still love's a burnin' in my 'eart, I vow; Just as it did that 'appy night in May Down at the Welsh 'Arp, which is Endon way. Oh, 'Arriet, &c.

[1: shout] [2: finest; trap] [3: swell] [4: chaffed]

NOTES

Rhymes Of The Canting Crew. [Footnote: Throughout these notes free use has been made of the National Dictionary of Biography; a work which, without question, contains the latest and most accurately sifted array of biographical information, much of which could not be obtained from any other source whatever.]

These lines are of little interest apart from the fact of being the earliest known example of the Canting speech or Pedlar's French in English literature. Sorry in point or meaning, they are sorrier still as verse. Yet, antedating, by half a century or more, the examples cited by Awdeley and Harman, they possess a certain value they carry us back almost to the beginnings of Cant, at all events to the time when the secret language of rogues and vagabonds first began to assume a concrete form.

Usually ascribed to Thomas Dekker (who "conveyed" them bodily, and with errors, to Lanthorne and Candlelight, published in 1609) this jingle of popular Canting phrases, strung together almost at haphazard, is the production of Robert Copland (1508-1547), the author of The Hye Way to the Spyttel House, a pamphlet printed after 1535, and of which only two or three copies are now known. Copland was a printer-author; in the former capacity a pupil of Caxton in the office of Wynkyn de Worde.

The plan of The Hye Way is simplicity itself. Copland, taking refuge near St. Bartholomew's Hospital during a passing shower, engages the porter in conversation concerning the "losels, mighty beggars and vagabonds, the michers, hedge-creepers, fylloks and luskes" that "ask lodging for Our Lord's sake". Thereupon is drawn a vivid and vigorous picture of the seamy side of the social life of the times. All grades of "vagrom men," with their frauds and shifts, are passed in review, and when Copland asks about their "bousy" speech, the porter entertains him with these lines.

Lines 2 and 4. Bousy = drunken, sottish, dissipated. So Skelton in Elynoor Rommin (Harl. MSS. ed. Park, I. 416), 'Her face all bowsie'. Booze = to drink heavily, is still colloquial; and, = to drink, was in use as early as A.D. 1300. Line 4. Cove (or Cofe) = a man, an individual. Maimed nace (nase or nazy) = helplessly drunk; Lat. nausea = sickness; cf. line 9, 'nace gere'. Line 5. Teare (toure or towre) = to look, to see. Patrying cove (patrico, patricove, or pattercove) = a strolling priest; cf. Awdeley, Frat. of Vacabondes (1560), p. 6.:— "A Patriarke Co. doth make marriages, and that is untill death depart the married folke, which is after this sort: When they come to a dead Horse or any dead Catell, then they shake hands and so depart, euery one of them a seuerall way." The form patrying cove seems to suggest a derivation from 'pattering' or 'muttering'—the Pater- noster, up to the time of the Reformation, was recited by the priest in a low voice as far as 'and lead us not into temptation' when the choir joined in. Darkman

cace (or case) = a sleeping apartment or place—ward, barn, or inn: darkmans = night + Lat. casa = house etc.: 'mans' is a common canting affix = a thing or place: e.g. lightmans = day; ruffmans = a wood or bush; greenmans = the fields; Chepemans = Cheapside market etc. Line 6. docked the dell = deflowered the girl: dell = virgin; see Harman, Caveat (1575), p. 75:—'A dell is a yonge wenche, able for generation, and not yet knowen or broken by the upright man'. Coper meke (or make) = a half-penny. Line 7. His watch = he: my watch = I, or me: cf. 'his nabs' and 'my nabs' in modern slang. Feng (A. S.) = to get, to steal, to snatch. Prounces nobchete = prince's hat or cap: cheat (A. S.) = thing, and mainly used as an affix: thus, belly-chete = an apron; cackling-chete = a fowl; crashing-chetes = the teeth; nubbing-chete = the gallows, and so forth. Line 8. Cyarum, by Salmon—the meaning of cyarum is unknown: by Salmon (or Solomon) = a beggar's oath, i.e., by the altar or mass. Pek my jere = eat excrement: cf. 'turd in your mouth'. Line 9. gan = mouth. My watch, see ante, line 7. Nace gere = nauseous stuff: cf. ante, line 4: gere = generic for thing, stuff, or material. Line 10. bene bouse = strong drink or wine.

The Beggar's Curse

Thomas Dekker, one of the best known of the Elizabethan pamphleteers and dramatists, was born in London about 1570, and began his literary career in 1597-8 when an entry referring to a loan-advance occurs in Henslowe's Diary. A month later forty shillings were advanced from the same source to have him discharged from

the Counter, a debtor's prison. Dekker was a most voluminous writer, and not always overparticular whence he got, or how he used, the material for his tracts and plays. The Belman of London Bringing to Light the Most Notorious Villanies that are now practised in the Kingdome (1608) of which three editions were published in one year, consists mainly of pilferings from Harman's Caveat for Common Curselors first published in 1566-7. He did not escape conviction, however, for Samuel Rowlands showed him up in Martin Mark-All. Yet another instance of wholesale "conveyance" is mentioned in the Note to "Canting Rhymes" (ante). In spite of this shortcoming, however, and a certain recklessness of workmanship, the scholar of to- day owes Dekker a world of thanks: his information concerning the social life of his time is such as can be obtained nowhere else, and it is, therefore, now of sterling value.

Lanthorne and Candlelight is the second part of The Belman of London. Published also in 1608, it ran to two editions in 1609, a fourth appearing in 1612 under the title of O per se O, or a new Cryer of Lanthorne and Candlelight, Being an Addition or Lengthening of the Belman's Second Night Walke. Eight or nine editions of this second part appeared between 1608 and 1648 all differing more or less from each other, another variation occurring when in 1637 Dekker republished Lanthorne and Candlelight under the title of English Villanies, shortly after which he is supposed to have died.

"Towre Out Ben Morts"

Samuel Rowlands, a voluminous writer circa 1570-1628, though little known now, nevertheless kept the publishers busy for thirty years, his works selling readily for another half century. Not the least valuable of his numerous productions from a social and antiquarian point of view is Martin Mark-All, Beadle of Bridewell; his Defence and Answere to the Belman of London (see both Notes ante).

Martin Markall delivers himself of a vivid and "originall" account of "the Regiment of Rogues, when they first began to take head, and how they have succeeded one the other successively unto the sixth and twentieth year of King Henry the Eighth, gathered out of the Chronicle of Crackropes" etc. He then criticizes somewhat severely the errors and omissions in Dekker's Canting glossary, adding considerably to it, and finally joins issue with the Belman in an attempt to give "song for song". Dekker's "Canting Rhymes" (plagiarised from Copland) and "The Beggar's Curse" thus apparently gave birth to the present verses and to those entitled "The Maunder's Wooing" that follow.

Stanza I, line i. Ben = Lat. bene = good. Mort = a woman, chaste or not. Line 3. Rome-cove = "a great rogue" (B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, 1690), i.e., an organizer, or the actual perpetrator of a robbery: quire-cove = a subordinate thief—the money had passed from the actual thief to his confederate. Rom (or rum) and quier (or queer) enter largely into combination, thus—rom = gallant, fine, clever, excellent, strong; rom-bouse = wine or strong drink; rum- bite = a clever trick or fraud; rum-blowen = a handsome mistress; rum-bung = a full purse; rum-diver = a clever pickpocket; rum-padder = a well-mounted highwayman, etc.: also queere = base, roguish; queer-bung = an empty purse; queer-cole = bad money; queer-diver = a bungling pickpocket; queer-ken = a prison; queer-mart = a foundered whore, and so forth. Budge = a general verb of action, usually stealthy action: thus, budge a beak = to give the constable the slip, or to bilk a policeman; to budge out (or off) = to sneak off; to budge an alarm = to give warning.

The Maunder's Wooing

See previous Note.

Stanza II, line 2. Autem mort = a wife; thus Harman, Caveat (1575):—"These Autem Mortes be maried wemen, as there be but a fewe. For Autem in their Language is a Churche; so she is a wyfe maried at the Church, and they be as chaste as a Cowe I have, that goeth to Bull every moone, with what Bull she careth not." Line 5. wap = to lie carnally with.

Stanza IV, line 5. Whittington = Newgate, from the famous Lord Mayor of London who left a bequest to rebuild the gaol. After standing for 230 years Whittington's building was demolished in 1666.

Stanza V, line 2. Crackmans = hedges or bushes. Tip lowr with thy prat = (literally) get money with thy buttocks, i.e. by prostitution.

Stanza VI, line 2. Clapperdogen = (B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, 1690) "a beggar born and bred"; also Harman, Caveat, etc. p. 44:—" these go with patched clokes, and have their morts with them, which they call wives."

"A Gage Of Ben Rom-Bouse"

Thomas Middleton, another of the galaxy of Elizabethan writers contributing so many sidelights on Shakspeare's life and times, is supposed to have been of gentle birth. He entered Gray's Inn about 1593 and was associated with Dekker in the production of The Roaring Girl, probably having the larger share in the composition. Authorities concur in tracing Dekker's hand in the canting scenes, but less certainly elsewhere. The original of Moll Cut-purse was a Mary Frith (1584—1659), the daughter of a shoemaker in the Barbican. Though carefully brought up she was particularly restive under discipline, and finally became launched as a "bully, pickpurse, fortune-teller, receiver and forger" in all of which capacities she achieved considerable notoriety. As the heroine of The Roaring Girl Moll is presented in a much more favorable light than the facts warrant.

Line 11. And couch till a palliard docked my dell = (literally) 'And lie quiet while a beggar deflowered my girl', but here probably = while a beggar fornicates with my mistress.

"Bing Out, Bien Morts"

[See Note to "The Beggar's Curse"]. Dekker introducing these verses affirms "it is a canting song not … composed as those of the Belman's were, out of his owne braine, but by the Canter's themselves, and sung at their meetings", in which, all things considered, Dekker is probably protesting overmuch.

Stanza V, line 3. And wapping dell that niggles well = a harlot or mistress who "spreads" acceptably.

Stanza IX, line 2. Bing out of the Rom-vile;

i.e. to Tyburn, then the place of execution: Rom-vile = London.

The Song Of The Begger

The Description of Love is an exceedingly scarce little "garland" which first appeared in 1620; but of that edition no copies are known to exist. Of the sixth edition, from which this example is taken, one copy is in the British Museum and another in the library collected by Henry Huth Esq. A somewhat similar ballad occurs in the Roxburgh Collection I, 42 (the chorus being almost identical), under the title of "The Cunning Northern Beggar". The complete title is A Description of Love. With certain Epigrams, Elegies, and Sonnets. And also Mast. Iohnson's Answere to Mast. Withers. With the Crie of Ludgate, and the Song of the Begger. The sixth Edition. London, Printed by M. F. for FRANCIS COULES at the Upper end of the Old-Baily neere Newgate, 1629.

Stanza II, line I. If a Bung be got by the Hie-law, i.e. by Highway robbery.

The Maunder's Initation

John Fletcher(1579—1625), dramatist, a younger son of Dr. Richard Fletcher afterwards bishop of London, by his first wife Elizabeth, was born in December 1579 at Rye in Sussex, where his father was then officiating as minister. A 'John Fletcher of London' was admitted 15 Oct. 1591 a pensioner of Bene't (Corpus) College, Cambridge, of which college Dr. Fletcher had been president. Dycc assumes that this John Fletcher, who became one of the bible-clerks in 1593, was the dramatist. Bishop Fletcher died, in needy circumstances, 15 June 1596, and by his will, dated 26 Oct. 1593, left his books to be divided between his sons Nathaniel and John.

The Beggar's Bush was performed at Court at Christmas 1622, and was popular long after the Restoration.

Fletcher was buried on 29 Aug. 1625 at St. Saviour's, Southwark. 'In the great plague, 1625,' says Aubrey (Letters written by Eminent Persons, vol. ii. pt. i. p. 352), 'a knight of Norfolk or Suffolk invited him into the countrey. He stayed but to make himselfe a suite of cloathes, and while it was makeing fell sick of the plague and died.'

The High Pad's Boast

See Note to "The Maunder's, Initiation", ante.

The Merry Beggars

Little is known of the birth or extraction of Richard Brome, and whether he died in 1652 or 1653 is uncertain. For a time he acted as servant to Ben Jonson. The Jovial Crew was produced in 1641 at The Cock-pit, a theatre which stood on the site of Pitt Place running out of Drury Lane into Gt. Wild St.

Stanza I, line 5. Go-well and Com-well = outgoing and incoming.

A Mort's Drinking Song

See Note to "The Merry Beggars," ante.

"A Beggar I'll Be"

This ballad is from the Bagford Collection which, formed by John Bagford (1651-1716), passed successively through the hands of James West (president of the Royal Society), Major Pearson, the Duke of Roxburghe and Mr. B. H. Bright, until in 1845 it and the more extensive Roxburghe Collection became the property of the nation.

Stanza II, line 1. Maunder = beggar. Line 2. filer = pickpocket; filcher = thief. Line 3. canter = a tramping beggar or rogue. Line 4. lifter = a shop-thief.

Stanza IV, line 8. Compter (or Counter), King's Bench, nor the Fleet, all prisons for debtors.

Stanza V, line 6, jumble = to copulate.

Stanza VIII, line 5. With Shinkin-ap-Morgan, with Blue-cap, or Teague = With a Welshman, Scotchman, or Irishman—generic: as now are Taffy, Sandy, and Pat.

A Budg And Snudg Song

Chappell in Popular English Music of the Olden Time says that this song appears in The Canting Academy (2nd ed. 1674) but the writer has been unable to find a copy of the book in question. The song was very popular, and many versions (all varying) are extant. The two given have been carefully collated. The portions in brackets [ ],- -for example stanza II, line 6, stanza III, lines 1—7, stanza IV, lines 5—8 etc.—only appear in the New Canting Dict. (1725). It was sung to the tune now known as There was a jolly miller once lived on the river Dee.

Title. Budge = "one that slips into a house in the dark, and taketh cloaks, coats, or what comes next to hand, marching off with them" (B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, 1690). Snudge = "one that lurks under a bed, to watch an opportunity to rob the house"—(B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, 1690).

Stanza I, line 7. Whitt= Newgate (see Note p. 204).

Stanza V, line 3. Jack Ketch, the public hangman 1663-1686.

The Maunder's Praise Of His Strowling Mort

The Triumph of Wit by J. Shirley is a curious piece of bookmaking—scissors and paste in the main—which ran through many editions. Divided into three parts, the first two are chiefly concerned with "the whole art and mystery of love in all its nicest intrigues", "choice letters with their answers" and such like matters. Part III contains "the mystery and art of Canting, with the original and present management thereof, and the ends to which it serves, and is employed: Illustrated with poems, songs and various intrigues in the Canting language with the explanation, etc." The songs were afterwards included in The New Canting Dict. (1725), and later on in Bacchus and Venus (1731).

Title. Strowling Mort = a beggar's trull:—"pretending to be widows, sometimes travel the countries … are light-fingered, subtle, hypocritical, cruel, and often dangerous to meet, especially when the ruffler is with them" (B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, 1690).

Stanza I, line 1. Doxy—"These Doxes be broken and spoyled of their maydenhead by the upright men, and then they have their name of Doxes, and not afore. And afterwards she is commen and indifferent for any that wyll use her".—Harman, Caveat, p. 73. Line 3. prats = buttocks or thighs. Line 4. wap = to copulate (also stanza IV, line i).

Stanza II, line 4. clip and kiss = to copulate.

The Rum-Mort's Praise Of Her Faithless Maunder

Obviously a companion song to the previous example: See Note ante. Rum-Mort = a beggar or gypsy queen.

Stanza I, line 1. Kinching-cove = (literally) a child or young lad: here as an endearment. Line 4. Clapperdogeon = "The Paillard or Clapperdogeons, are those that have been brought up to beg from their infancy, and frequently counterfeit lameness, making their legs, arms, and hands appear to be sore"—Triumph of Wit, p. 185.

Stanza II, line 1. Dimber-damber = a chief man in the Canting Crew, or the head of a gang. Line 2. Palliard (See note Stanza I). Line 3. jockum =penis. Line 4. glimmer = fire; here, a pox or clap.

Stanza V, line 1. crank (or counterfeit-crank)—"These that do counterfet the cranke be yong knaves and yonge harlots that deeply dissemble the falling sickness".—(Harman, Caveat, 1814, p. 33). Line 1. dommerar= a beggar feigning deaf and dumb. Line 2. rum-maunder = to feign madness. Line 3. Abram-cove = a beggar pretending madness to cover theft. Line 4. Gybes well jerk'd = pass or license cleverly forged.

The Black Procession

See Note as to J. Shirley on page 209.

Frisky Moll's Song

John Harper (d. 1742), actor, originally performed at Bartholomew and Southwark fairs. On 27 Oct. 1721 his name appears as Sir Epicure Mammon in the Alchemist at Drury Lane. Here he remained for eleven years, taking the parts of booby squires, fox-hunters, etc., proving himself what Victor calls 'a jolly facetious low comedian'. His good voice was serviceable in ballad opera and farce. On account of his 'natural timidity', according to Davies, he was selected by Highmore, the patentee, in order to test the status of an actor, to be the victim of legal proceedings taken under the Vagrant Act, 12 Queen Anne, and on 12 Nov. 1733 he was committed to Bridewell as a vagabond. On 20 Nov. he came before the chief justice of the Kings Bench. It was pleaded on his behalf that he paid his debts, was well esteemed by persons of condition, was a freeholder in Surrey, and a householder in Westminster. He was discharged amid acclamations on his own recognisance.

The Canter's Serenade

The New Canting Dictionary (1725) is, in the main, a reprint of The Dictionary of the Canting* Crew (c. 1696) compiled by B. E. The chief difference is that the former contains a collection of Canting Songs, most of which are included in the present collection.

Stanza I, line 3. palliards—see Note, p. 210, ten lines from bottom.

"Retoure My Dear Dell"

See Note to "The Canter's Serenade." This song appears to be a variation of a much older one, generally ascribed to Chas II, entitled I pass all my hours in a shady old grove.

The Vain Dreamer

See Note to "The Canter's Serenade."

"When My Dimber Dell I Courted"

See Note to "The Canter's Serenade." The first two stanzas appear in a somewhat different form as "a new song" to the time of Beauty's Ruin in The Triumph of Wit (1707), of which the first stanza is as follows:—

When Dorinda first I courted, She had charms and beauty too; Conquering pleasures when she sported, The transport it was ever new: But wastful time do's now deceive her, Which her glories did uphold; All her arts can ne'er relieve her, Poor Dorinda is grown old.

Stanza I, line 4. Wap = the act of kind. Dimber dell = pretty wench—"A dell is a yonge wenche, able for generation, and not yet knowen or broken by the upright man … when they have beene lyen with all by the upright man then they be Doxes, and no Dells."— (HARMAN).

Stanza III, line 3. Upright-men—"the second rank of the Canting tribes, having sole right to the first night's lodging with the Dells."—(B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, 1696).

The Oath Of The Canting Crew

Bamfylde Moore Carew, the King of the Gypsies, born in 1693, was the son of the Rector of Bickley, near Tiverton. It is related that to avoid punishment for a boyish freak he, with some companions, ran away and joined the gypsies. After a year and a half Carew returned for a time, but soon rejoined his old friends. His career was a long series of swindling and imposture, very ingeniously carried out, occasionally deceiving people who should have known him well. His restless nature then drove him to embark for Newfoundland, where he stopped but a short time, and on his return he pretended to be the mate of a vessel, and eloped with the daughter of a respectable apothecary of Newcastle on Tyne, whom he afterwards married. He continued his course of vagabond roguery for some time, and when Clause Patch, a king, or chief of the gypsies, died, Carew was elected his successor. He was convicted of being an idle vagrant, and sentenced to be transported to Maryland. On his arrival he attempted to escape, was captured, and made to wear a heavy iron collar, escaped again, and fell into the hands of some friendly Indians, who relieved him of his collar. He took an early opportunity of leaving his new friends, and got into Pennsylvania. Here he pretended to be a Quaker, and as such made his way to Philadelphia, thence to New York, and afterwards to New London, where he embarked for England. He escaped impressment on board a man- of-war by pricking his hands and face, and rubbing in bay salt and gunpowder, so as to simulate smallpox. After his landing he continued his impostures, found out his wife and daughter, and seems to have wandered into Scotland about 1745, and is said to have accompanied the Pretender to Carlisle and Derby. The record of his life from this time is but a series of frauds and deceptions, and but little is absolutely known of his career, except that a relative, Sir Thomas Carew of Hackern, offered to provide for him if he would give up his wandering life. This he refused to do, but it is believed that he eventually did so after he had gained some prizes in the lottery. The date of his death is uncertain. It is generally given, but on no authority, as being in 1770 but 'I. P.', writing from Tiverton, in Notes and Queries, 2nd series, vol. IV, p. 522, says that he died in 1758. The story of his life in detail is found in the well-known, and certainly much-printed, Life and Adventures of Bamfylde Moore Carew, the earliest edition of which (1745) describes him on the title-page as "the Noted Devonshire Stroller and Dogstealer". This book professes to have been "noted by himself during his passage to America", but though no doubt the facts were supplied by Carew himself, the actual authorship is uncertain, though the balance of probability lies with Robert Goadby, a printer and compiler of Sherborne Dorsetshire, who printed an edition in 1749. A correspondent of Notes and Queries, however, states that Mrs. Goadby wrote it from Carew's dictation. [N. and Q. 2 S iii. 4; iv. 330, 440, 522],

Line 1. Crank Cuffin = Queer Cove = a rogue. Line 9. Stop-hole Abbey, "the nick-name of the chief rendezvous of the Canting Crew ".—(B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, 1696). Line 17. Abram = formerly a mendicant lunatic of Bethlehem Hospital who on certain days was allowed to go out begging: hence a beggar feigning madness. Ruffler crack = an expert rogue. Line 18. Hooker = "peryllous and most wicked Knaves… for, as they walke a day times, from house to house, to demaund Charite… well noting what they see… that will they be sure to have… for they customably carry with them a staffe of V. of VI. foote long, in which within one ynch of the tope thereof, ys a lytle hole bored through, in which hole they putte an yron hoke, and with the same they wyll pluck unto them quickly anything that they may reche therewith."—(Harman, Caveat, 1869, p. 35, 36). Line 19. Frater = "such as beg with a sham-patent or brief for Spitals, Prisons, Fires, etc."—(B. E.). Line 20. Irish toyle = a beggar-thief, working under pretence of peddling pins, lace, and such-like wares. Line 21. Dimber-damber = the chief of a gang: also an expert thief. Angler = hooker (see ante). Line 23. swigman = a beggar peddling haberdashery to cover theft and roguery. Clapperdogeon = a beggar born and bred, see note p. 210, tenth line from bottom. Line 24. Curtal—"a curtall is much like to the upright man (that is, one in authority, who may "call to account", "command a share", chastise those under him, and "force any of their women to serve his turn"), but hys authority is not fully so great. He useth commonly to go with a short cloke, like to grey Friers, and his woman with him in like livery, which he calleth his Altham if she be hys wyfe, and if she be his harlot, she is called hys Doxy."—(HARMAN). Line 25. Whip-jack = a rogue begging with a counterfeit license. Palliard = a beggar born and bred. Patrico = a hedge-priest. Line 26. Jarkman = "he that can write and reade, and sometime speake latin. He useth to make counterfaite licenses which they call gybes, and sets to seales, in their language called Jarkes. "—(HARMAN). Line 27. Dommerar = a rogue pretending deaf and dumb. Romany = a gipsy. Line 28. The family = the fraternity of vagabonds.

"Come All You Buffers Gay"

In the Roxburghe Collection (ii. 504) is a ballad upon which the present song is clearly based. It is called The West Country Nymph, or the little maid of Bristol to the time of Young Jemmy (i.e. the Duke of Monmouth, Charles II's natural son). The first stanza runs—

Come all you maidens fair, And listen to my ditty, In Bristol city fair There liv'd a damsel pretty.

The Potato Man

Stanza II, line 2. Cly = properly pocket, but here is obviously meant the contents.

Stanza IV, line 1. Blue bird's-eye = a blue and silk handkerchief with white spots.

A Slang Pastoral

Of R. Tomlinson nothing is known. The Dr. Byrom whose poem is here parodied is perhaps best remembered as the author of a once famous system of shorthand. He was born in 1691, went to the Merchant Taylor's School, and at the age of 16 was admitted a pensioner of Trinity College Cambridge. It was here that he wrote My time, O ye muses. He died in 1763, and his poems, no inconsiderable collection, were published in 1773.

"Ye Scamps, Ye Pads, Ye Divers"

Stanza I, line 1. The lay = a pursuit, a scheme: here = thievery and roguery in general.

Stanza IV, line 4. Like Blackamore Othello &c.—the reference is to Othello, v. 2. "Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men. Put out the light, and then—put out the light."

The Sandman's Wedding

Though George Parker's name is not formally attached to this "Cantata" there would appear little doubt, from internal evidence, that it, with the two songs immediately following, forms part of a characteristic series from the pen of this roving soldier-actor. Parker was born in 1732 at Green Street, near Canterbury and was 'early admitted', he says, 'to walk the quarterdeck as a midshipman on board the Falmouth and the Guernsey'. A series of youthful indiscretions in London obliged him to leave the navy, and in or about 1754 to enlist as a common soldier in the 2Oth regiment of foot, the second battalion of which became in 1758 the 67th regiment, under the command of Wolfe. In his regiment he continued a private, corporal, and sergeant for seven years, was present at the siege of Belleisle, and saw service in Portugal, Gibraltar, and Minorca. At the end of the war he returned home as a supernumerary excise-man. About 1761 his friends placed him in the King's Head inn at Canterbury where he soon failed. Parker went upon the stage in Ireland, and in company with Brownlow Ford, a clergyman of convivial habits, strolled over the greater part of the island. On his return to London he played several times at the Haymarket, and was later introduced by Goldsmith to Colman. But on account of his corpulence Colman declined his services. Parker then joined the provincial strolling companies, and was engaged for one season with Digges, then manager of the Edinburgh Theatre. At Edinburgh he married an actress named Heydon, from whom, however, he was soon obliged to part on account of her dissolute life. Returning again to London, he set up as wandering lecturer on elocution, and in this character travelled with varying success through England. In November 1776 he set out on a visit to France, and lived at Paris for upwards of six months on funds supplied by his father. His resources being exhausted, he left Paris in the middle of July 1777 on foot. On reaching England he made another lecturing tour, which proved unsuccessful. His wit, humour, and knowledge of the world rendered him at one time an indispensable appendage to convivial gatherings of a kind; but in his later days he was so entirely neglected as to be obliged to sell gingerbread-nuts at fairs and race-meetings for a subsistance. He died in Coventry poorhouse in April 1800.

The Happy Pair and The Bunter's Christening and The Masqueraders

See note (ante) to "The Sandman's Wedding". Life's Painter etc. ran through several editions.

The Flash Man of St. Giles

Stanza II, line 7. Drunk as David's sow = beastly drunk. Grose (Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue) says: One David Lloyd, a Welshman, who kept an ale-house at Hereford, had a sow with six legs, which was an object of great curiosity. One day David's wife, having indulged too freely, lay down in the sty to sleep, and a company coming to see the sow, David led them to the sty, saying, as usual, "There is a sow for you! Did you ever see the like?" One of the visitors replied, "Well, it is the drunkenest sow I ever beheld." Whence the woman was ever after called "Davy's sow."

A Leary Mot

Stanza III, line 1. Cock and Hen Club = a free-and-easy for both sexes.

Stanza IV, line 4. Tom Cribb—see note p. 223.

"The Night Before Larry was Stretched"

Neither the authorship nor the date of these inimitable verses are definitely known. According to the best authorities, Will Maher, a shoemaker of Waterford, wrote the song. Dr. Robert Burrowes, Dean of St. Finbar's Cork, to whom it has been so often attributed, certainly did not. Often quoted in song book and elsewhere. Francis Sylvester Mahony, better known as "Father Prout" contributed to Froser's Magazine the following translation into the French.

La mort de Socrate.

Par l'Abbé de Prout, Curé du Mont-aux-Cressons, près de Cork.

A la veille d'être pendu, Notr' Laurent reçut dans son gite, Honneur qui lui était bien dû, De nombreux amis la visite; Car chacun scavait que Laurent A son tour rendrait la pareille, Chapeau montre, et veste engageant, Pour que l'ami put boire bouteille, Ni faire, à gosier sec, le saut.

"Helas, notre garden!" lui dis-je, "Combien je regrette ton sort! Te voilà fleur, que sur sa tige Moisonne la cruelle mort!"— "Au diable," dit-il, "le roi George! Ça me fait la valeur d'un bouton; Devant le boucher qui m'égorge, Je serai comme un doux mouton, Et saurai montrer du courage!"

Des amis déjà la cohorte Remplissait son étroit réduit: Six chandelles, ho! qu'on apporte, Donnons du lustre à cette nuit! Alors je cherchai à connaitre S'il s'était dument repenti? "Bah! c'est les fourberies des prêtres Les gredins, ils en ont menti, Et leurs contes d'enfer sont faux!"

L'on demande les cartes. Au jeu Laurent voit un larron qui triche; D'honneur tout rempli, ìl prend feu, Et du bon coup de poign l'affiche. "Ha, coquìn! de mon dernier jour Tu croyais profiler, peut-être; Tu oses me jouer ce tour! Prends ça pour ta peine, vil traître! Et apprends à te bien conduire!"

Quand nous eûmes cessé nos ébats, Laurent, en ce triste repaire Pour le disposer au trépas, Voit entrer Monsieur le Vicaire. Apres un sinistre regard, Le front de sa main il se frotte, Disant tout haut, "Venez plus tard!" Et tout has, "Vilaine calotte!" Puis son verre il vida deux fois.

Lors il parla de l'echaufaud, Et de sa dernière cravate; Grands dieux! que ça paraissait beau De la voïr mourir en Socrate! Le trajet en chantant il fit— La chanson point ne fut un pseaume; Mais palit un peu quand il vit La statute de Roy Guillaume— Les pendards n'aiment pas ce roi!

Quand fut au bout de son voyage, Le gibet fut prêt en un clin: Mourant îl tourna de visage Vers la bonne ville de Dublin. Il dansa la carmagnole, Et mount comme fit Malbrouck; Puis nous enterrâmes le drôle Au cimetière de Donnybrook Que son âme y soit en repos!

Stanza V, line 3. Kilmainham, a gaol near Dublin.

Stanza VI, line 7. King William, the statute of William III erected on College Green in commemoration of the Battle of the Boyne. It was long the object of much contumely on the part of the Nationalists. It was blown to pieces in 1836, but was subsequently restored.

The Song of the Young Prig

Said to have been written by Little Arthur Chambers, the Prince of Prigs, who was one of the most expert thieves of his time. He began to steal when he was in petticoats, and died a short time before Jack Sheppard came into notice. Internal evidence, however, renders this attributed authorship very improbable.

Stanza I, line 1. Dyots Isle, i.e., Dyot St., St. Giles, afterwards called George St. Bloomsbury, was a well-known rookery where thieves and their associates congregated.

Stanza II, line 3. And I my reading learnt betime From studying pocket-books. "Pocket-book" = reader.

Stanza IV, line 1. To work capital = to commit a crime punishable with death. Previous to 1829 many offences, now thought comparatively trivial, were deemed to merit the extreme penalty of the law.

The Milling Match

Tom Cribb's Memorial to Congress: With a Preface, Notes, and Appendix. By One of the Fancy. London, Longmans & Co., 1819. There were several editions. Usually, with good reason, ascribed to Thomas Moore. It may be remarked that, though the Irish Anacreon's claim to fame rests avowedly on his more serious contributions to literature, he was, nevertheless, never so popular as when dealing with what, in the early part of the present century, was known as THE FANCY. Pugilism then took the place, in the popular mind, that football and cricket now occupy. Tom Cribb was born at Hanham in the parish of Bitton, Gloucestershire, in 1781, and coming to London at the age of thirteen followed the trade of a bell-hanger, then became a porter at the public wharves, and was afterwards a sailor. From the fact of his having worked as a coal porter he became known as the 'Black Diamond,' and under this appellation he fought his first public battle against George Maddox at Wood Green on 7 Jan. 1805, when after seventy-six rounds he was proclaimed the victor, and received much praise for his coolness and temper under very unfair treatment. In 1807 he was introduced to Captain Barclay, who, quickly perceiving his natural good qualities, took him in hand, and trained him under his own eye. He won the championship from Bob Gregson in 1808 but in 1809 he was beaten by Jem Belcher. He subsequently regained the belt. After an unsuccessful venture as a coal merchant at Hungerford Wharf, London, he underwent the usual metamorphosis from a pugilist to a publican, and took the Golden Lion in Southwark; but finding this position too far eastward for his aristocratic patrons he removed to the King's Arms at the corner of Duke Street and King Street, St. James's, and subsequently, in 1828, to the Union Arms, 26 Panton Street, Haymarket. On 24 Jan. 1821 it was decided that Cribb, having held the championship for nearly ten years without receiving a challenge, ought not to be expected to fight any more, and was to be permitted to hold the title of champion for the remainder of his life. On the day of the coronation of George IV, Cribb, dressed as a page, was among the prizefighters engaged to guard the entrance to Westminster Hall. His declining years were disturbed by domestic troubles and severe pecuniary losses, and in 1839 he was obliged to give up the Union Arms to his creditors. He died in the house of his son, a baker in the High Street, Woolwich, on 11 May 1848, aged 67, and was buried in Woolwich churchyard, where, in 1851, a monument representing a lion grieving over the ashes of a hero was erected to his memory. As a professor of his art he was matchless, and in his observance of fair play he was never excelled; he bore a character of unimpeachable integrity and unquestionable humanity.

Ya Hip, My Hearties!

Stanza III, line 8. Houyhnhnms. A race of horses endowed with human reason, and bearing rule over the race of man—a reference to Dean Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726).

Sonnets For The Fancy

Pierce Egan, the author of the adventures of Tom and Jerry was born about 1772 and died in 1849. He had won his spurs as a sporting reporter by 1812, and for eleven years was recognised as one of the smartest of the epigrammatists, song-writers, and wits of the time. Boxiana, a monthly serial, was commenced in 1818. It consisted of 'Sketches of Modern Pugilism', giving memoirs and portraits of all the most celebrated pugilists, contemporary and antecedent, with full reports of their respective prize-fights, victories, and defeats, told with so much spirited humour, yet with such close attention to accuracy, that the work holds a unique position. It was continued in several volumes, with copperplates, to 1824. At this date, having seen that Londoners read with avidity his accounts of country sports and pastimes, he conceived the idea of a similar description of the amusements pursued by sporting men in town. Accordingly he announced the publication of Life in London in shilling numbers, monthly, and secured the aid of George Cruikshank, and his brother, Isaac Robert Cruikshank, to draw and engrave the illustrations in aquatint, to be coloured by hand. George IV had caused Egan to be presented at court, and at once accepted the dedication of the forthcoming work. This was the more generous on the king's part because he must have known himself to have been often satirised and caricatured mercilessly in the Green Bag literature by G. Cruikshank, the intended illustrator. On 15 July 1821 appeared the first number of Life in London; or, 'The Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn, Esq., and his elegant friend, Corinthian Jem, accompanied by Bob Logic, the Oxonian, in their Rambles and Sprees through the Metropolis.' The success was instantaneous and unprecedented. It took both town and country by storm. So great was the demand for copies, increasing with the publication of each successive number, month by month, that the colourists could not keep pace with the printers. The alternate scenes of high life and low life, the contrasted characters, and revelations of misery side by side with prodigal waste and folly, attracted attention, while the vivacity of dialogue and description never flagged.

Stanza III, line 10. New Drop. The extreme penalty of the law, long carried out at Tyburn (near the Marble Arch corner of Hyde Park), was ultimately transferred to Newgate. The lament for "Tyburn's merry roam" was, without doubt, heart-felt and characteristic. Executions were then one of the best of all good excuses for a picnic and jollification. Yet the change of scene to Newgate does not appear to have detracted much from these functions as shows. "Newgate to-day," says a recent writer in The Daily Mail, is little wanted, and all but vacant, as a general rule. In former days enormous crowds were herded together indiscriminately—young and old, innocent and guilty, men, women, and children, the heinous offender, and the neophyte in crime. The worst part of the prison was the "Press Yard," the place then allotted to convicts cast for death. There were as many as sixty or seventy sometimes within these narrow limits, and most were kept six months and more thus hovering between a wretched existence and a shameful death. Men in momentary expectation of being hanged rubbed shoulders with others still hoping for reprieve. If the first were seriously inclined, they were quite debarred from private religious meditation, but consorted, perforce, with reckless ruffians, who played leap-frog, and swore and drank continually. Infants of tender years were among the condemned; lunatics, too, raged furiously through the Press Yard, and were a constant annoyance and danger to all. The "condemned sermon" in the prison chapel drew a crowd of fashionable folk, to stare at those who were to die, packed together in a long pew hung with black, and on a table in front was placed an open coffin. Outside, in the Old Bailey, on the days of execution, the awful scenes nearly baffle description. Thousands collected to gloat over the dying struggles of the criminals, and fought and roared and trampled each other to death in their horrible eagerness, so that hundreds were wounded or killed. Ten or a dozen were sometimes hanged in a row, men and women side by side.

The True Bottomed Boxer

The Universal Songster, or Museum of Mirth; forming the most complete collection of ancient and modern songs in the English language, with a classified Index… Embellished with a Frontispiece and wood cuts, designed by George Cruikshank etc. 3vols. London, 1825- 26. 8vo.

Stanza I, line 1. Moulsey-Hurst rig = a prize-fight: Moulsey- Hurst, near Hampton Court, was long a favorite venue for pugilistic encounters. Line 3. Fibbing a nob is most excellent gig = getting in a quick succession of blows on the head is good fun. Line 4. Kneading the dough = a good pummelling. Line 6. Belly-go-firsters = an initial blow, generally given in the stomach. Line 8. Measuring mugs for a chancery job = getting the head under the arm or 'in chancery'.

Stanza II, line 1. Flooring = downing (a man). Flushing = delivering a blow right on the mark, and straight from the shoulder. Line 5. Crossing = unfair fighting; shirking.

Stanza III, line 5. Victualling-office = the stomach. Line 6. Smeller and ogles = nose and eyes. Line 7. Bread-basket = stomach. Line 8. In twig = in form; ready.

Bobby And His Mary

[See ante for note on Universal Songster].

Stanza I, line 1. Dyot Street, see note page 222.

Stanza II, line 16. St. Pulchre's bell, the great bell of St. Sepulchre's Holborn, close to Newgate, always begins to toll a little before the hour of execution, under the bequest of Richard Dove, who directed that an exhortation should be made to "… prisoners that are within, Who for wickedness and sin are appointed to die, Give ear unto this passing bell."

Poor Luddy

Thomas John Dibdin (1771-1841), the author of this song, was an actor and dramatist—an illegitimate son of Charles Dibdin the elder. He claimed to have written nearly 2000 songs.

The Pickpocket's Chaunt

Eugene François Vidocq was a native of Arras, where his father was a baker. From early associations he fell into courses of excess which led to his flying from the paternal roof. After various, rapid, and unexampled events in the romance of real life, in which he was everything by turns and nothing long, he was liberated from prison, and became the principal and most active agent of police. He was made chief of the Police de Sureté under Messrs. Delavau and Franchet, and continued in that capacity from the year 1810 till 1827, during which period he extirpated the most formidable gangs of ruffians to whom the excesses of the revolution and subsequent events had given full scope for daring robberies and iniquitous excesses. He settled down as a paper manufacturer at St. Mandé near Paris.

Of Maginn (1793-1842) it may be said he was, without question, one of the most versatile writers of his time. He is, perhaps, best remembered in connection with the Noctes Ambrosianæ, which first appeared in Blackwood, and with the idea of which Maginn is generally credited. He was also largely concerned with the inception of Fraser's. Maginn's English rendering of Vidocq's famous song first appeared in Blackwood for July 1829. For the benefit of the curious the original is appended. It will be seen that Maginn was very faithful to his copy.

En roulant de vergne en vergne [1] Pour apprendre à goupiner, [2] J'ai rencontré la mercandière, [3] Lonfa malura dondaine, Qui du pivois solisait, [4] Lonfa malura dondé.

J'ai rencontré la mercandière Qui du pivois solisait; Je lui jaspine en bigorne; [5] Lonfa malura dondaine, Qu'as tu donc à morfiller? [6] Lonfa malura dondé.

Je lui jaspine en bigorne; Qu'as tu donc à morfiller? J'ai du chenu pivois sans lance. [7] Lonfa malura dondaine, Et du larton savonné [8] Lonfa malura dondé.

J'ai du chenu pivois sans lance Et du larton savonné, Une lourde, une tournante, [9] Lonfa malura dondaine, Et un pieu pour roupiller [10] Lonfa malura dondé.

Une lourde, une tournante Et un pieu pour roupiller. J'enquille dans sa cambriole, [11] Lonfa malura dondaine, Espérant de l'entifler, [12] Lonfa malura dondé.

J'enquille dans sa cambriole Espérant de l'entifler; Je rembroque au coin du rifle, [13] Lonfa malura dondaine, Un messière qui pionçait, [14] Lonfa malura dondé.

Je rembroque au coin du rifle Un messière qui pionçait; J'ai sondé dans ses vallades, [15] Lonfa malura dondaine, Son carle j'ai pessigué, [16] Lonfa malura dondé.

J'ai sondé dans ses vallades, Son carie j'ai pessigué, Son carle et sa tocquante, [17] Lonfa malura dondaine, Et ses attaches de cé, [18] Lonfa malura dondé.

Son carle et sa tocquante, Et ses attaches de cé, Son coulant et sa montante, [19] Lonfa malura dondaine, Et son combre galuché Lonfa malura dondé.

Son coulant et sa montante Et son combre galuché, [20] Son frusque, aussi sa lisette, [21] Lonfa malura dondaine, Et ses tirants brodanchés, [22] Lonfa malura dondé.

Son frasque, aussi sa lisette Et ses tirants brodanchés. Crompe, crompe, mercandière, [23] Lonfa malura dondaine, Car nous serions béquillés, [24] Lonfa malura dondé.

Crompe, crompe, mercandière, Car nous serions béquillés. Sur la placarde de vergne, [25] Lonfa malura dondaine, II nous faudrait gambiller, [26] Lonfa malura dondé.

Sur la placarde de vergne Il nous faudrait gambiller, Allumés de toutes ces largues, [27] Lonfa malura dondaine, Et du trèpe rassemblé, [28] Lonfa malura dondé.

Allumés de toutes ces largues Et du trèpe rassemblé; Et de ces charlots bons drilles, [29] Lonfa malura dondaine, Tous aboulant goupiner. [30] Lonfa malura dondé.

[1: Vergne, town.] [2: Goupiner, to steal.] [3: Mercandière, tradeswomen.] [4: Du pivois solisait, sold wine.] [5: Jaspine en bigorne, say in cant.] [6: Morfiller, to eat and drink.] [7: Chenu, good. Lance, water.] [8: Larton savonné, white bread.] [9: Lourde, door. Tournante, key.] [10: Pieu, bed. Roupiller, to sleep.] [11: J'enquille, I enter. Cambriole, room.] [12: Entifler, to marry.] [13: Rembroque, see. Rifle, fire.] [14: Mesisère man. Pionçait, as sleeping.] [15: Vallades, pockets.] [16: Carle, money. Pessigué, taken.] [17: Tocquante, watch.] [18: Attaches de ce, silver buckles.] [19: Coulant, chain. Montante, breeches.] [20: Combre galuché, laced hat.] [21: Frusque, coat. Lisette, waistcoat.] [22: Tirants brodanchés, embroidered stockings.] [23: Footnote: Crompe, run away.] [24: Béquilles, hanged.] [25: Placarde de vergne, public place.] [26: Gambiller, to dance.] [27: Allumés, stared at. Largues, women.] [28: Trèpe, crowd.] [29: Charlots bons drilles, jolly thieves.] [30: Aboulant, coming.]

Stanza XIII, line 5. Cotton, the ordinary at Newgate.

On the Prigging Lay

H. T. R., the English translator of Vidocq's Memoirs (4 vol., 1828-9), says of this and the following renderings from the French that they "with all their faults and all their errors, are to be added to the list of the translator's sins, who would apologise to the Muse did he but know which of the nine presides over Slang poetry." The original of "On the Prigging Lay" is as follows:—

Un jour à la Croix-Rouge Nous étions dix à douze (She interrupted herself with "Comme à l'instant même.") Nous étions dix à douze Tous grinches de renom, [1] Nous attendions la sorgue [2] Voulant poisser des bogues [3] Pour faire du billon. [4] (bis)

Partage ou non partage Tout est à notre usage; N'épargnons le poitou [5] Poissons avec adresse [6] Messières et gonzesses [7] Sans faire de regout. [8] (bis)

Dessus le pont au change Certain argent-de-change Se criblait au charron, [9] J'engantai sa toquante [10] Ses attaches brillantes [11] Avec ses billemonts. [12] (bis)

Quand douze plombes crossent, [13] Ses pègres s'en retournant [14] Au tapis de Montron [15] Montron ouvre ta lourde, [16] Si tu veux que j'aboule, [17] Et piausse en ton bocsin. [18] (bis)

Montron drogue à sa larque, [19] Bonnis-moi donc girofle [20] Qui sont ces pègres-là? [21] Des grinchisseurs de bogues, [22] Esquinteurs de boutoques, [23] Les connobres tu pas? [24] (bis)

Et vite ma culbute; [25] Quand je vois mon affure [26] Je suis toujours paré [27] Du plus grand coeur du monde Je vais à la profonde [28] Pour vous donner du frais, (bis)

Mais déjà la patrarque, [29] Au clair de la moucharde, [30] Nous reluge de loin. [31] L'aventure est étrange, C'était l'argent-de-change, Que suivait les roussins. [32] (bis)

A des fois l'on rigole [33] Ou bien l'on pavillonne [34] Qu'on devrait lansquiner [35] Raille, griviers, et cognes [36] Nous ont pour la cigogne [37] Tretons marrons paumés. [38] (bis)

[1: Thieves] [2: Night] [3: Watches] [4: Money] [5: Let us be cautious] [6: Let us rob] [7: citizen and wife] [8: Awaken suspicion] [9: Cried "Thief."] [10: I took his watch.] [11: His diamond buckles] [12: His bank notes] [13: Twelve oclock strikes.] [14: The thieves] [15: At the cabinet] [16: Your door] [17: Give money] [18: Sleep at your house] [19: Asks his wife] [20: Says my love] [21: These thieves] [22: Watch stealers] [23: Burglers] [24: Do you not know them?] [25: Breeches] [26: Profit] [27: Ready] [28: Cellar] [29: Patrol] [30: The moon] [31: Look at us.] [32: Spies] [33: Laughs] [34: Jokes] [35: To weep] [36: Exempt, soldiers and gendarmes.] [37: Palace of justice] [38: Taken in the act]

The Lag's Lament

See Note ante, "On the Prigging Lay", The original runs as follows:—

Air: L'Heureux Pilote.

Travaillant d'ordinaire, La sorgue dans Pantin, [1] Dans mainte et mainte affaire Faisant très-bon choppin, [2] Ma gente cambriole, [3] Rendoublée de camelotte, [4] De la dalle au flaquet; [5] Je vivais sans disgrâce, Sans regout ni morace, [6] Sans taff et sans regret. [7]

J'ai fait par comblance [8] Giroude larguecapé, [9] Soiffant picton sans lance, [10] Pivois non maquillé, [11] Tirants, passe à la rousse, [12] Attachés de gratouse, [13] Combriot galuché. [14] Cheminant en bon drille, Un jour à la Courtille Je m'en étais enganté. [15]

En faisant nos gambades, Un grand messière franc, [16] Voulant faire parade, Serre un bogue d'orient. [17] Après la gambriade, [18] Le filant sur l'estrade, [19] D'esbrouf je l'estourbis, [20] J'enflaque sa limace, [21] Son bogue, ses frusques, ses passes, [22] Je m'en fus au fourallis. [23]

Par contretemps, ma largue, Voulant se piquer d'honneur, Craignant que je la nargue Moi que n' suis pas taffeur, [24] Pour gonfler ses valades Encasque dans un rade [25] Sert des sigues a foison [26] On la crible à la grive, [27] Je m' la donne et m' esquive, [28] Elle est pommée maron. [29]

Le quart d'oeil lui jabotte [30] Mange sur tes nonneurs, [31] Lui tire une carotte Lui montant la couleur. [32] L'on vient, on me ligotte, [33] Adieu, ma cambriole, Mon beau pieu, mes dardants [34] Je monte à la cigogne, [35] On me gerbe à la grotte, [36] Au tap et pour douze ans. [37]

Ma largue n' sera plus gironde, Je serais vioc aussi; [38] Faudra pour plaire au monde, Clinquant, frusque, maquis. [39] Tout passe dans la tigne, [40] Et quoiqu'on en juspine. [41] C'est un f— flanchet, [42] Douze longes de tirade, [43] Pour un rigolade, [44] Pour un moment d'attrait.

[1: Evening in Paris.] [2: A good booty.] [3: Chamber.] [4: Full of goods.] [5: Money in the pocket.] [6: Without fear or uneasiness.] [7: Without care.] [8: An increase.] [9: A handsome mistress.] [10: Drinking wine without water.] [11: Unadulterated wine.] [12: Stockings.] [13: Lace.] [14: Laced hat.] [15: Clad] [16: Citizen] [17: A gold watch] [18: Dance] [19: Following him in the boulevard.] [20: I stun him.] [21: I take off his shirt.] [22: I steal his watch, clothes and shoes.] [23: The receiving house.] [24: Coward] [25: Enters a shop.] [26: Steals money.] [27: They call for the guard.] [28: I fly] [29: Taken in the fact.] [30: The commissary questions him.] [31: Denounces his accomplices.] [32: Tell a falsehood.] [33: They tie me.] [34: My fine bed, my loves.] [35: The dock.] [36: They condemn me to the galleys.] [37: To exposure.] [38: Old.] [39: Rouge.] [40: In this world.] [41: Whatever people say.] [42: Lot.] [43: Twelve years of fetters.] [44: Fool.]

Stanza II, line 2. So gay, so nutty and so knowing—See Don Juan, Canto XI, stanza …

Stanza VI, line i. Sir Richard Birnie the chief magistrate at Bow St.

"Nix My Doll, Pals, Fake Away"

Ainsworth in his preface to Rookwood makes the following remarks on this and the three following songs:—"As I have casually alluded to the flash song of Jerry Juniper, I may be allowed to make a few observations upon this branch of versification. It is somewhat curious with a dialect so racy, idiomatic, and plastic as our own cant, that its metrical capabilities should have been so little essayed. The French have numerous chansons d'argot, ranging from the time of Charles Bourdigné and Villon down to that of Vidocq and Victor Hugo, the last of whom has enlivened the horrors of his 'Dernier Jour d'un Condamne" by a festive song of this class. The Spaniards possess a large collection of Romances de Germania, by various authors, amongst whom Quevedo holds a distinguished place. We on the contrary, have scarcely any slang songs of merit. This barreness is not attributable to the poverty of the soil, but to the want of due cultivation. Materials are at hand in abundance, but there have been few operators. Dekker, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Ben Jonson, have all dealt largely in this jargon, but not lyrically; and one of the earliest and best specimens of a canting-song occurs in Brome's 'Jovial Crew;' and in the 'Adventures of Bamfylde Moore Carew' there is a solitary ode addressed by the mendicant fraternity to their newly-elected monarch; but it has little humour, and can scarcely be called a genuine canting-song. This ode brings us down to our own time; to the effusions of the illustrious Pierce Egan; to Tom Moore's Flights of 'Fancy;' to John Jackson's famous chant, 'On the High Toby Spice flash the Muzzle,' cited by Lord Byron in a note to 'Don Juan;' and to the glorious Irish ballad, worth them all put together, entitled 'The Night before Larry was stretched.' This is attributed to the late Dean Burrowes, of Cork. [See Note, p. 220 Ed.]. It is worthy of note, that almost all modern aspirants to the graces of the Musa Pedestris are Irishmen. Of all rhymesters of the 'Road,' however, Dean Burrowes is, as yet, most fully entitled to the laurel. Larry is quite 'the potato!'

"I venture to affirm that I have done something more than has been accomplished by my predecessors, or contemporaries, with the significant language under consideration. I have written a purely flash song; of which the great and peculiar merit consists in its being utterly incomprehensible to the uninformed understanding, while its meaning must be perfectly clear and perspicuous to the practised patterer of Romany, or Pedler's French. I have, moreover, been the first to introduce and naturalize amongst us a measure which, though common enough in the Argotic minstrelsy of France, has been hitherto utterly unknown to our pedestrian poetry." How mistaken Ainsworth was in his claim, thus ambiguously preferred, the present volume shows. Some years after the song alluded to, better known under the title of 'Nix my dolly, pals,—fake away!' sprang into extra-ordinary popularity, being set to music by Rodwell, and chanted by glorious Paul Bedford and clever little Mrs. Keeley.

The Game Of High Toby

and

The Double Cross

See note to "Nix my Doll, Pals, etc.," ante.

The House Breaker's Song

G. W. M. Reynolds followed closely on the heels of Dickens when the latter scored his great success in The Pickwick Papers. He was a most voluminous scribbler, but none of his productions are of high literary merit.

The Faking Boy To The Crap Is Gone

The Nutty Blowen

The Faker's New Toast

and

My Mother

"Bon Gualtier" was the joint nom-de-plume of W. E. Aytoun and Sir Theodore Martin. Between 1840 and 1844 they worked together in the production of The Bon Gualtier Ballads, which acquired such great popularity that thirteen large editions of them were called for between 1855 and 1877. They were also associated at this time in writing many prose magazine articles of a humorous character, as well as a series of translations of Goethe's ballads and minor poems, which, after appearing in Blackwood's Magazine, were some years afterwards (1858) collected and published in a volume. The four pieces above mentioned appeared as stated in Tails Edinburgh Magazine under the title of "Flowers of Hemp, or the Newgate Garland," and are parodies of well-known songs.

The High Pad's Frolic

and

The Dashy, Splashy…. Little Stringer

Leman Rede (1802-47) an author of numerous successful dramatic pieces, and a contributor to the weekly and monthly journals of the day, chiefly to the New Monthly and Bentley's. He was born in Hamburgh, his father a barrister.

Some of the best parts ever played by Liston, John Reeve, Charles Mathews, Keeley, and G. Wild were written by him.

The Bould Yeoman

The Bridle-Cull and his little Pop-Gun

Jack Flashman

Miss Dolly Trull

and

The By-Blow Of The Jug

See Note to "Sonnets for The Fancy" p. 225. Captain Macheath was one of Egan's latest, and by no means one of his best, productions. It is now very scarce.

The Cadger's Ball

John Labern, a once popular, but now forgotten music-hall artiste, and song-writer, issued several collections of the songs of the day. It is from one of these that "The Cadger's Ball" is taken.

"Dear Bill, This Stone-Jug"

The state of affairs described in this poem is now happily a thing of the past. Newgate, as a prison, has almost ceased to be. Only when the Courts are sitting do its functions commence, and then there is constant coming and going between the old city gaol and the real London prison of to-day, Holloway Castle.

The Leary Man

The Vulgar Tongue, by Ducarge Anglicus, is, as a glossary, of no account whatever; the only thing not pilfered from Brandon's Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime being this song. Where that came from deponent knoweth not.

A Hundred Stretches Hence

The Rogue's Lexicon, mainly reprinted from Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, is of permanent interest and value to the philologist and student for the many curious survivals of, and strange shades of meaning occurring in, slang words and colloquilisms after transplantation to the States. G. W. Matsell was for a time the chief of the New York police.