For them coves in Guildhall, and that blessed Lord Mayor,
Prigs on their four bones should chop whiners I swear: [13]
That long over Newgit their Worships may rule,
As the high-toby, mob, crack and screeve model school: [14]
For if Guv'ment wos here, not the Alderman's Bench,
Newgit soon 'ud be bad as 'the Pent,' or 'the Tench'. [15]
[1: prison]
[2: mistresses]
[3: friends]
[4: Notes]
[5: warders, bamboozle]
[6: night]
[7: meat and drink]
[8: greenhorn]
[9: tricks; talking slang; obscenity]
[10: imprisoned]
[11: up to prison ways]
[12: writing]
[13: on knees should pray]
[14: highwayman; swell-mobsmen; burglars, forgers]
[15: Notes]
THE LEARY MAN [Notes]
[1857]
[From _The Vulgar Tongue_, by DUCANGE ANGLICUS].
I
Of ups and downs I've felt the shocks
Since days of bats and shuttlecocks,
And allcumpaine and Albert-rocks,
When I the world began;
And for these games I often sigh
Both marmoney and Spanish-fly,
And flying kites, too, in the sky,
For which I've often ran.