With the mots their ogles throwing
And old Cotton humming his pray,
And the fogle hunters doing
Tol lol, etc.
Their morning fake in the prigging lay.
[1: shop; house]
[2: thieving]
[3: girl, strumpet, sweetheart]
[4: 'cute in business]
[5: spoke in slang]
[6: drink and food]
[7: porter, beer]
[8: family = fraternity of thieves]
[9: nose]
[10: gentleman; drunk]
[11: pockets; fingers]
[12: take his sovereigns]
[13: watch]
[14: seals]
[15: hat]
[16: clothes]
[17: plunder]
[18: taken; police]
[19: hanging]
[20: girl's; eyes]
[21: Notes]
ON THE PRIGGING LAY [Notes]
[1829]
[By H. T. R....: a translation of a French
Slang song ("Un jour à la Croix Rouge")
in Vidocq's _Memoirs_, 1828-9, 4 vols.]
I
Ten or a dozen "cocks of the game," [1]
On the prigging lay to the flash-house came, [2]
Lushing blue ruin and heavy wet [3]
Till the darkey, when the downy set. [4]
All toddled and begun the hunt
For readers, tattlers, fogies, or blunt. [5]