Awdeley’s Fraternitye of Vacabondes, Harman’s Caueat, Haben’s Sermon,
&c.; Edited by Edward Viles and Frederick James Furnivall; Authored by
John Awdeley (flourished 1559–1577), Thomas Harman (active 1567), and
Parson Haben (or Hyberdyne). Published in 1869 for the Early English
Text Society, by Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press.
Awdeley’s
Fraternitye of Vacabondes,
Harman’s Caueat,
Haben’s Sermon, &c.
――――
Early English Text Society.
Extra Series. No. IX.
1869.
The Fraternitye of Vacabondes
BY JOHN AWDELEY
(LICENSED IN 1560–1, IMPRINTED THEN, AND IN 1565)
FROM THE EDITION OF 1575 IN THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY.
――――
A Caueat or Warening for Commen Cursetors
vulgarely called Vagabones
BY THOMAS HARMAN ESQUIERE,
FROM THE 3RD EDITION OF 1567, BELONGING TO HENRY HUTH, ESQ.
COLLATED WITH THE 2ND EDITION OF 1567 IN THE BODLEIAN
LIBRARY, OXFORD, AND WITH THE REPRINT OF THE
4TH EDITION OF 1573.
――――
A Sermon in Praise of Thieves and Thievery
BY PARSON HABEN OR HYBERDYNE,
FROM THE LANSDOWNE MS. 98, AND COTTON VESP. A. 25.
――――
THOSE PARTS OF
The Groundworke of Conny-catching (ed. 1592)
THAT DIFFER FROM _HARMAN’S CAUEAT_.
――――
EDITED BY
EDWARD VILES & F. J. FURNIVALL.
――――
LONDON:
PUBLISHED FOR THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY
BY HUMPHREY MILFORD, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
AMEN HOUSE, E.C. 4
[_Reprinted 1898, 1937._]
Extra Series, IX.
――――
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED
BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Preface i
AWDELEY’S _Fraternitye_, not plagiarized from, but
published ‘a fewe yeares’ before, Harman’s _Caueat_ i
HARMAN’S _Caueat_: two states of the 2nd edition. The
latter, now called the 3rd edition, is reprinted here iv
Piraters from Harman: Bynnyman, and G. Dewes vi
Short account of Thomas Harman vii
HARRISON’S quotation of Harman, and his account of
English Vagabonds, and the punishments for them xi
_The Groundworke of Conny-catching_ is a reprint of
Harman’s _Caueat_, with an Introduction xiv
DEKKER’S _Belman of London_: its borrowings from Harman xiv
S. ROWLANDS’S _Martin Mark-all_ shows up Dekker, and has
new Cant words xvi
DEKKER’S _Lanthorn and Candle-light_ borrows from
Harman: Canting Song from it xix
_The Caterpillers of this Nation anatomized_ xxi
_A Warning for Housebreakers_ xxi
_Street Robberies consider’d_ xxii
Parson HABEN’S or HYBERDYNE’S _Sermon in Praise of
Thieves and Thievery_ xxiv
Shares in the present work xxiv
1. Awdeley’s Fraternitye of Vacabondes, _with_ the .xxv.
Orders of Knaues (p. 12–16) 1–16
2. Harman’s Caueat or Warrening for Commen
Cvrsetors vulgarely called Vagabones 17–91
3. Parson Haben’s (or Hyberdyne’s) Sermon in Praise of
Thieves and Thievery 92–95
4. The Groundwork of Conny-catching: those parts that are
not reprinted from Harman’s _Caueat_ 96–103
5. Index 104–111
{i}
PREFACE.
If the ways and slang of Vagabonds and Beggars interested Martin Luther
enough to make him write a preface to the _Liber Vagatorum_[1] in
1528, two of the ungodly may be excused for caring, in 1869, for the
old Rogues of their English land, and for putting together three of
the earliest tracts about them. Moreover, these tracts are part of the
illustrative matter that we want round our great book on Elizabethan
England, Harrison’s _Description of Britain_, and the chief of them is
quoted by the excellent parson who wrote that book.
The first of these three tracts, Awdeley’s _Fraternitye of Vacabondes_,
has been treated by many hasty bibliographers, who can never have taken
the trouble to read the first three leaves of Harman’s book, as later
than, and a mere pilfering from, Harman’s _Caueat_. No such accusation,
however, did Harman himself bring against the worthy printer-author
(herein like printer-author Crowley, though he was preacher too,) who
preceded him. In his Epistle dedicatory to the Countes of Shrewsbury,
p. 20, below, Harman, after speaking of ‘these wyly wanderers,’
vagabonds, says in 1566 or 1567,
There was _a fewe yeares since_ a small bréefe setforth of some zelous
man to his countrey,—of whom I knowe not,—that made a lytle shewe of
there names and vsage, and gaue a glymsinge lyghte, not sufficient to
perswade of their peuishe peltinge and pickinge practyses, but well
worthy of prayse.
[Footnote 1: _Liber Vagatorum: Der Betler Orden_: First printed
about 1514. Its first section gives a special account of the several
orders of the ‘Fraternity of Vagabonds;’ the 2nd, sundry _notabilia_
relating to them; the 3rd consists of a ‘Rotwelsche Vocabulary,’
or ‘Canting Dictionary.’ See a long notice in the Wiemarisches
Jahrbuch, vol. 10; 1856. _Hotten’s Slang Dictionary_: Bibliography.]
{ii}
This description of the ‘small bréefe,’ and the ‘lytle shewe’ of the
‘names and vsage,’ exactly suits Awdeley’s tract; and the ‘fewe yeares
since’ also suits the date of what may be safely assumed to be the
first edition of the _Fraternitye_, by John Awdeley or John Sampson, or
Sampson Awdeley,—for by all these names, says Mr Payne Collier, was our
one man known:—
It may be disputed whether this printer’s name were really Sampson,
or Awdeley: he was made free of the Stationers’ Company as Sampson,
and so he is most frequently termed towards the commencement of the
Register; but he certainly wrote and printed his name Awdeley or
Awdelay; now and then it stands in the Register ‘Sampson Awdeley.’ It
is the more important to settle the point, because . . . he was not
only a printer, but a versifier,[2] and ought to have been included by
Ritson in his _Bibliographica Poetica_. (Registers of the Stationers’
Company, A.D. 1848, vol. i. p. 23.)
These verses of Awdeley’s, or Sampson’s, no doubt led to his ‘small
bréefe’ being entered in the Stationers’ Register as a ‘ballett’:
“1560–1. Rd. of John Sampson, for his lycense for pryntinge of a
ballett called the description of vakaboundes . . . . iiij^d.
“[This entry seems to refer to an early edition of a very curious
work, printed again by Sampson, alias Awdeley, in 1565, when it
bore the following title, ‘The fraternitie of vacabondes, as well
of rufling vacabones as of beggerly, [3]†as well of women as of men,
†and as well of gyrles as of boyes, with their proper names and
qualityes. Also the xxv. orders of knaves, otherwise called a quartten
of knawes. Confirmed this yere by Cocke Lorel.’ The edition without
date mentioned by Dibdin (iv. 564) may have been that of the entry.
Another impression by Awdeley, dated 1575 [which we reprint] is
reviewed in the _British Bibliographer_, ii. 12, where it is asserted
(as is very probable, though we are without distinct evidence of
the fact) that the printer was the compiler of the book, and he
certainly introduces it by three six-line stanzas. If this work came
out originally in 1561, according to the entry, there is no doubt
that it was the precursor of a very singular series of tracts on the
same subject, which will be noticed in their proper places.]”—J. P.
Collier, _Registers_, i. 42.
[Footnote 2: See the back of his title-page, p. 2, below.]
[Footnote 3: †–† _as well_ and _and as well_ not in the title of the
1575 edition.]
As above said, I take Harman’s ‘fewe yeares’—in 1566 or 7—to point to
the 1561 edition of Awdeley, and not the 1565 ed. And as to Awdeley’s
authorship,—what can be more express than his own words, {iii} p.
2, below, that what the Vagabond caught at a Session confest as to
‘both names and states of most and least of this their Vacabondes
brotherhood,’ _that_,—‘at the request of a worshipful man, I [‘The
Printer,’ that is, John Awdeley] have set it forth as well as I can.’
But if a doubt on Awdeley’s priority to Harman exists in any reader’s
mind, let him consider this second reference by Harman to Awdeley
(p. 60, below), not noticed by the bibliographers: “For-as-much as
these two names, a Iarkeman and a Patrico, bée in _the old briefe
of vacabonds_, and set forth as two kyndes of euil doers, you shall
vnderstande that a Iarkeman hath his name of a _Iarke, which is a seale
in their Language_, as one should _make writinges and set seales for
lycences_ and pasporte,” and then turn to Awdeley’s _Fraternitye of
Vacabondes_, and there see, at page 5, below:
¶ A IACK MAN.
A Iackeman is he that can write and reade, and sometime speake latin.
He vseth _to make counterfaite licences_ which they call Gybes,
_and sets to Seales, in their language called Iarkes_. (See also ‘A
Whipiacke,’ p. 4.)
Let the reader then compare Harman’s own description of a _Patrico_, p.
60, with that in ‘the old _Briefe of Vacabonds_,’ Awdeley, p. 6:
Awdeley. Harman.
¶ A PATRIARKE CO. there is a PATRICO . . .
A Patriarke Co doth _make mariages_, whiche in their language is a
& that is _vntill death priest, that should _make
depart_ the maried folke. mariages tyll death dyd depart_.
And surely no doubt on the point will remain in his mind, though, if
needed, a few more confirmations could be got, as
Awdeley (p. 4). Harman (p. 44).
¶ A PALLIARD. ¶ A Pallyard.
A Palliard is he that goeth in a These Palliardes . . go with patched
patched cloke, and hys Doxy clokes, and haue their Morts with
goeth in like apparell. them.
We may conclude, then, certainly, that Awdeley did not plagiarize
Harman; and probably, that he first published his _Fraternitye_ in
1561. The tract is a mere sketch, as compared with Harman’s _Caueat_,
though in its descriptions (p. 6–11) of ‘A Curtesy Man,’ {iv} ‘A
Cheatour or Fingerer,’ and ‘A Ring-Faller’ (one of whom tried his
tricks on me in Gower-street about ten days ago), it gives as full
a picture as Harman does of the general run of his characters. The
edition of 1575 being the only one accessible to us, our trusty Oxford
copier, Mr George Parker, has read the proofs with the copy in the
Bodleian.
Let no one bring a charge of plagiarizing Awdeley, against Harman, for
the latter, as has been shown, referred fairly to Awdeley’s ‘_small
breefe_’ or ‘_old briefe of vacabonds_’ and wrote his own “bolde
Beggars booke” (p. 91) from his own long experience with them.
――――
Harman’s _Caueat_ is too well-known and widely valued a book to
need description or eulogy here. It is _the_ standard work on its
subject,—‘these rowsey, ragged, rabblement of rakehelles’ (p. 19)—and
has been largely plundered by divers literary cadgers. No copy of the
first edition seems to be known to bibliographers. It was published in
1566 or 1567,—probably the latter year,[4]—and must (I conclude) have
contained less than the second, as in that’s ‘Harman to the Reader,’ p.
28, below, he says ‘well good reader, I meane not to be tedyous vnto
the, but haue added fyue or sixe more tales, because some of them weare
doune whyle my booke was fyrste in the presse.’ He speaks again of his
first edition at p. 44, below, ‘I had the best geldinge stolen oute of
my pasture, that I had amongst others, whyle this boke was _first a
printynge_;’ and also at p. 51, below, ‘Apon Alhol enday in the morning
last anno domini 1566, or my booke was halfe printed, I meane _the
first impression_.’ All Hallows’ or All Saints’ Day is November 1.
[Footnote 4: Compare the anecdote, p. 66, 68, ‘the _last_ sommer,
Anno Domini, 1566.’]
The edition called the second[5], also bearing date in 1567, is known
to us in two states, the latter of which I have called the third
edition. The first state of the second edition is shown by the Bodleian
copy, which is ‘Augmented and inlarged by the fyrst author here of,’
and has, besides smaller differences specified in the footnotes in
our pages, this great difference, that the arrangement of ‘The Names
of {v} the Vpright Men, Roges, and Pallyards’ is not alphabetical, by
the first letter of the Christian names, as in the second state of the
second edition (which I call the third edition), but higgledy-piggledy,
or, at least, without attention to the succession of initials either of
Christian or Sur-names, thus, though in three columns:
¶ VPRIGHT MEN.
Richard Brymmysh.
John Myllar.
Wel arayd Richard.
John Walchman.
Wyllia_m_ Chamborne.
Bryan Medcalfe.
Robert Gerse.
Gryffen.
Richard Barton.
John Braye.
Thomas Cutter.
Dowzabell skylfull in fence.
[&c.]
¶ ROGES.
Harry Walles with the little mouth.
John Waren.
Richard Brewton.
Thomas Paske.
George Belbarby.
Humfrey Warde.
Lytle Robyn.
Lytle Dycke.
Richard Iones.
Lambart Rose.
Harry Mason.
Thomas Smithe with the skal skyn.
[&c.]
¶ PALLYARDS.
Nycholas Newton carieth a fayned lycence.
Bashforde.
Robart Lackley.
Wylliam Thomas.
Edward Heyward, hath his Morte following hym Whiche fayneth y^e crank.
Preston.
Robart Canloke.
[&c.]
This alone settles the priority of the Bodley edition, as no printer,
having an index alphabetical, would go and muddle it all again, even
for a lark. Moreover, the other collations confirm this priority. The
colophon of the Bodley edition is dated A. D. 1567, ‘the eight of
January;’ and therefore A. D. 1567–8.
[Footnote 5: ‘now at this seconde Impression,’ p. 27; ‘Whyle this
second Impression was in printinge,’ p. 87.]
The second state of the second edition—which state I call the third
edition—is shown by the copy which Mr Henry Huth has, with his
never-failing generosity, lent us to copy and print from. It omits
‘the eight of January,’ from the colophon, and has ‘Anno Domini 1567’
only. Like the 2nd edition (or 2 A), this 3rd edition (or 2 B) has
the statement on p. 87, below: ‘Whyle this second {vi} Impression
was in printinge, it fortuned that Nycholas Blunte, who called hym
selfe Nycholan Gennyns, a counterefet Cranke, that is spoken of in
this booke, was fonde begging in the whyte fryers on Newe yeares day
last past, Anno domini .1567, and commytted vnto a offescer, who
caried hym vnto the depetye of the ward, which co_m_mytted hym vnto
the counter;’ and this brings both the 2nd and 3rd editions (or 2 A
and 2 B) to the year 1568, modern style. The 4th edition, so far as I
know, was published in 1573, and was reprinted by Machell Stace (says
Bohn’s Lowndes) in 1814. From that reprint Mr W. M. Wood has made a
collation of words, not letters, for us with the 3rd edition. The
chief difference of the 4th edition is its extension of the story of
the ‘dyssembling Cranke,’ Nycholas Genings, and ‘the Printar of this
booke’ Wylliam Gryffith (p. 53–6, below), which extension is given in
the footnotes to pages 56 and 57 of our edition. We were obliged to
reprint this from Stace’s reprint of 1814, as our searchers could not
find a copy of the 4th edition of 1573 in either the British Museum,
the Bodleian, or the Cambridge University Library.
Thus much about our present edition. I now hark back to the first,
and the piracies of it or the later editions, mentioned in Mr J. P.
Collier’s _Registers of the Stationers’ Company_, i. 155–6, 166.
“1566–7 Rd. of William Greffeth, for his lycense for printinge of
a boke intituled a Caviat for commen Corsetors, vulgarly called
Vagabons, by Thomas Harman . . . iiij^d.
“[No edition of Harman’s ‘Caveat or Warning for common Cursetors,’ of
the date of 1566, is known, although it is erroneously mentioned in
the introductory matter to the reprint in 1814, from H. Middleton’s
impression of 1573. It was the forerunner of various later works
of the same kind, some of which were plundered from it without
acknowledgment, and attributed to the celebrated Robert Greene.
Copies of two editions in 1567, by Griffith, are extant, and, in all
probability, it was the first time it appeared in print: Griffith
entered it at Stationers’ Hall, as above, in 1566, in order that
he might publish it in 1567. Harman’s work was preceded by several
ballads relating to vagabonds, the earliest of which is entered on p.
42 [Awdeley, p. ii. above]. On a subsequent page (166) is inserted a
curious entry regarding ‘the boke of Rogges,’ or Rogues.]
“1566–7. For Takynge of Fynes as foloweth. Rd. of Henry {vii}
Bynnyman, for his fyne for undermy[n]dinge and procurynge, as moche
as in hym ded lye, a Copye from wylliam greffeth, called the boke of
Rogges . . . iij^s.
“[This was certainly Harman’s ‘Caveat or Warning for Common
Cursetors’; and here we see Bynneman fined for endeavouring to
_undermine_ Griffith by procuring the copy of the work, in order that
Bynneman might print and publish it instead of Griffith, his rival in
business. The next item may show that Gerard Dewes had also printed
the book, no doubt without license, but the memorandum was crossed out
in the register.]
“Also, there doth remayne in the handes of Mr Tottle and Mr Gonneld,
then wardens, the somme of iij^{li}. vij^s. viij^d., wherto was
Recevyd of garrad dewes for pryntinge of the boke of Rogges in a^o
1567 . . . ij^{li}. vj^s. viij^d.
“[All tends to prove the desire of stationers to obtain some share of
the profits of a work, which, as we have already shown, was so well
received, that Griffith published two editions of it in 1567.]”
The fact is, the book was so interesting that it made its readers
thieves, as ‘Jack Sheppard’ has done in later days. The very woodcutter
cheated Harman of the hind legs of the horse on his title, prigged two
of his prauncer’s props (p. 42).
To know the keen inquiring Social Reformer, Thomas Harman, the
reader must go to his book. He lived in the country (p. 34, foot),
in [Crayford] Kent (p. 30, p. 35), near a heath (p. 35), near Lady
Elizabeth Shrewsbury’s parish (p. 19), not far from London (p. 30,
p. 35); ‘he lodged at the White Friars within the cloister’ (p. 51),
seemingly while he was having his book printed (p. 53), and had his
servant there with him (_ib._); ‘he knew London well’ (p. 54, &c.); and
in Kent ‘beinge placed as a poore gentleman,’ he had in 1567, ‘kepte
a house these twenty yeares, where vnto pouerty dayely hath and doth
repayre,’ and where, being kept at home ‘through sickenes, he talked
dayly with many of these wyly wanderars, as well men and wemmen, as
boyes and gyrles,’ whose tricks he has so pleasantly set down for us.
He did not, though, confine his intercourse with vagabonds to talking,
for he says of some, p. 48,
¶ Some tyme they counterfet the seale of the Admiraltie. I haue diuers
tymes taken a waye from them their lycences of both sortes, {viii}
wyth suche money as they haue gathered, and haue confiscated the same
to the pouerty nigh adioyninge to me. p. 51–6.
Our author also practically exposed these tricks, as witness his
hunting out the Cranke, Nycholas Genings, and his securing the
vagabond’s 13_s._ and 4_d._ for the poor of Newington parish, p.
51–6, his making the deaf and dumb beggar hear and speak, p. 58–9 (and
securing his money too for the poor). But he fed deserving beggars, see
p. 66, p. 20.
Though Harman tells us ‘Eloquence haue I none, I neuer was acquaynted
with the Muses, I neuer tasted of Helycon’ (p. 27–8), yet he could
write verses—though awfully bad ones: see them at pages 50 and 89–91,
below, perhaps too at p. 26[6];—he knew Latin—see his comment on
Cursetors and Vagabone, p. 27; his _una voce_, p. 43; perhaps his
‘Argus eyes,’ p. 54; his _omnia venalia Rome_, p. 60; his _homo_, p.
73; he quotes St Augustine (and the Bible), p. 24; &c.;—he studied
the old Statutes of the Realm (p. 27); he liked proverbs (see the
Index); he was once ‘in commission of the peace,’ as he says, and
judged malefactors, p. 60, though he evidently was not a Justice when
he wrote his book; he was a ‘gentleman,’ says Harrison (see p. xii.
below); ‘a Iustice of Peace in Kent,[7] in Queene Marie’s daies,’ says
Samuel Rowlands;[8] he bore arms (of heraldry), and had them duly
stamped on his pewter dishes (p. 35); he had at least one old ‘tennant
who customably a greate tyme went twise in the weeke to London, (over
Blacke Heathe) eyther wyth fruite or with pescoddes’ (p. 30); he
hospitably asked his visitors to dinner (p. 45); he had horses in his
pasture,[9] the best gelding of which the Pryggers of Prauncers prigged
(p. 44); he had an unchaste cow that went to bull every month (p. 67,
if his ownership is not chaff here); he had in his ‘well-house on
the backe side of {ix} his house, a great cawdron of copper’ which
the beggars stole (p. 34–5); he couldn’t keep his linen on his hedges
or in his rooms, or his pigs and poultry from the thieves (p. 21); he
hated the ‘rascal rabblement’ of them (p. 21), and ‘the wicked parsons
that keepe typlinge Houses in all shires, where they haue succour and
reliefe’; and, like a wise and practical man, he set himself to find
out and expose all their ‘vndecent, dolefull [guileful] dealing, and
execrable exercyses’ (p. 21) to the end that they might be stopt, and
sin and wickedness might not so much abound, and thus ‘this Famous
Empyre be in more welth, and better florysh, to the inestymable joye
and comfort’ of his great Queen, Elizabeth, and the ‘vnspeakable
. . reliefe and quietnes of minde, of all her faythfull Commons and
Subiectes.’ The right end, and the right way to it. We’ve some like you
still, Thomas Harman, in our Victorian time. May their number grow!
[Footnote 6: Mr J. P. Collier (_Bibliographical Catalogue_, i. 365)
has little doubt that the verses at the back of the title-page of
Harman’s _Caveat_ were part of “a ballad intituled a description
of the nature of a birchen broom” entered at Stationers’ Hall to
William Griffith, the first printer of the _Caveat_.]
[Footnote 7: Cp. Kente, p. 37, 43, 48, 61, 63, 66, 68, 77, &c.
Moreover, the way in which he, like a Norfolk or Suffolk man, speaks
of _shires_, points to a liver in a non -_shire_.]
[Footnote 8: In _Martin Mark-all, Beadle of Bridewell_, 1610, quoted
below, at p. xvii.]
[Footnote 9: Compare his ‘ride to Dartforde to speake with a priest
there,’ p. 57.]
Thus much about Harman we learn from his book and his literary
contemporaries and successors. If we now turn to the historian of his
county, Hasted, we find further interesting details about our author:
1, that he lived in Crayford parish, next to Erith, the Countess of
Shrewsbury’s parish; 2, that he inherited the estates of Ellam, and
Maystreet, and the manor of Mayton or Maxton; 3, that he was the
grandson of Henry Harman, Clerk of the Crown, who had for his arms
‘Argent, a chevron between 3 scalps sable,’ which were no doubt those
stampt on our Thomas’s pewter dishes; 4, that he had a ‘descendant,’—a
son, I presume—who inherited his lands, and three daughters, one of
whom, Bridget, married Henry Binneman—? not the printer, about 1565–85
A.D., p. vi–vii, above.
Hasted in his description of the parish of Crayford, speaking of Ellam,
a place in the parish, says:—
“In the 16th year of K. Henry VII. John Ellam alienated it (the
seat of Ellam) to Henry Harman, who was then Clerk of the Crown,[10]
and {x} who likewise purchased an estate called Maystreet here, of
Cowley and Bulbeck, of Bulbeck-street in this parish, in the 20th
year of King Edward IV.[11] On his decease, William Harman, his son,
possessed both these estates.[12] On his decease they descended to
Thomas Harman, esq., his son; who, among others, procured his lands
to be disgavelled, by the act of the 2 & 3 Edw. VI.[13] He married
Millicent, one of the daughters of Nicholas Leigh, of Addington, in
the county of Surry, esq.[14] His descendant, William Harman, sold
both these places in the reign of K. James I. to Robert Draper,
esqr.”—_History of Kent_, vol. i. p. 209.
[Footnote 10: “John Harman, Esquyer, one of the gentilmen hushers
of the Chambre of our soverayn Lady the Quene, and the excellent
Lady Dame Dorothye Gwydott, widow, late of the town of Southampton,
married Dec. 21, 1557.” (Extract from the register of the parish of
Stratford Bow, given in p. 499, vol iii. of Lysons’s _Environs of
London_.)]
[Footnote 11: Philipott, p. 108. Henry Harman bore for his
arms—Argent, a chevron between 3 scalps sable.]
[Footnote 12: Of whose daughters, Mary married John, eldest son of
Wm. Lovelace, of Hever in Kingsdown, in this county; and Elizabeth
married John Lennard, Prothonotary, and afterwards _Custos Brevium_
of the Common Pleas. See Chevening.]
[Footnote 13: See Robinson’s Gavelkind, p. 300.]
[Footnote 14: She was of consanguinity to Abp. Chicheley. _Stemm.
Chich._ No. 106. Thomas Harman had three daughters: Anne, who
married Wm. Draper, of Erith, and lies buried there; Mary, who
married Thomas Harrys; and Bridget, who was the wife of Henry
Binneman. _Ibid._]
The manor of Maxton, in the parish of Hougham “passed to Hobday, and
thence to Harman, of Crayford; from which name it was sold by Thomas
Harman to Sir James Hales. . . . . William Harman held the manor of
Mayton, alias Maxton, with its appurtenances, of the Lord Cheney, as of
his manor of Chilham, by Knight’s service. Thomas Harman was his son
and heir: Rot. Esch. 2 Edw. VI.”—Hasted’s _History of Kent_, vi. p. 47.
“It is laid down as a rule, that nothing but an act of parliament can
change the nature of gavelkind lands; and this has occasioned several
[acts], for the purpose of disgavelling the possessions of divers
gentlemen in this county. . . . . One out of several statutes made for
this purpose is the 3rd of Edw. VI.”—Hasted’s _History of Kent_, vol.
i. p. cxliii.
And in the list of names given,—taken from Robinson’s
_Gavelkind_—twelfth from the bottom stands that of THOMAS HARMAN.
Of Thomas Harman’s aunt, Mary, Mrs William Lovelace, we find: “John
Lovelace, esq., and William Lovelace, his brother, possessed this
manor and seat (Bayford-Castle) between them; the latter of whom
resided at Bayford, where he died in the 2nd year of K. Edward VI.,
leaving issue by Mary his wife, daughter of William Harman, of
Crayford, seven sons. . . . ”—Hasted’s _History of Kent_, vol. ii. p.
612.
The rectory of the parish of Deal was bestowed by the Archbishop on
Roger Harman in 1544 (_Hasted_, vol. iv. p. 171).
Harman-street is the name of a farm in the parish of Ash (_Hasted_,
vol. iii. p. 691). {xi}
The excellent parson, William Harrison, in his ‘Description of
England,’ prefixed to Holinshed’s Chronicles (edit. 1586), quotes
Harman fairly enough in his chapter “Of prouision made for the poore,”
Book II, chap. 10.[15] And as he gives a statement of the sharp
punishment enacted for idle rogues and vagabonds by the Statutes of
Elizabeth, I take a long extract from his said chapter. After speaking
of those who are made ‘beggers through other mens occasion,’ and
denouncing the grasping landlords ‘who make them so, and wipe manie
out of their occupiengs,’ Harrison goes on to those who are beggars
‘through their owne default’ (p. 183, last line of col. 1, ed. 1586):
“Such as are idle beggers through their owne default are of two sorts,
and continue their estates either by casuall or meere voluntarie
meanes: those that are such by casuall means [16]†are in the
beginning† iustlie to be referred either to the first or second sort
of poore †afore mentioned†; but, degenerating into the thriftlesse
sort, they doo what they can to continue their miserie; and, with such
impediments as they haue, to straie and wander about, as creatures
abhorring all labour and euerie honest excercise. Certes, I call these
casuall meanes, not in respect of the originall of their pouertie,
but of the continuance of the same, from whence they will not be
deliuered, such[17] is their owne vngratious lewdnesse and froward
disposition. The voluntarie meanes proceed from outward causes, as by
making of corosiues, and applieng the same to the more fleshie parts
of their bodies; and also laieng of ratsbane, sperewort, crowfoot,
and such like vnto their whole members, thereby to raise pitifull[18]
and odious sores, and mooue †the harts of† the goers by such places
where they lie, to [19]‡yerne at‡ their miserie, and therevpon† bestow
large almesse vpon them.[20] How artificiallie they beg, what forcible
speech, and how they select and choose out words of vehemencie,
whereby they doo in maner coniure or adiure the goer by to pitie
their cases, I passe ouer to remember, as iudging the name of God
and Christ to be more conuersant in the mouths of none, and yet the
presence of the heuenlie maiestie further off from no men than from
this vngratious companie. Which maketh me to thinke, that punishment
is farre meeter for them than liberalitie or almesse, and sith Christ
willeth vs cheeflie to haue a regard to himselfe and his poore members.
“Vnto this nest is another sort to be referred, more sturdie than the
rest, which, hauing sound and perfect lims, doo yet, notwithstanding
{xii} sometime counterfeit the possession of all sorts of diseases.
Diuerse times in their apparell also[21] they will be like seruing men
or laborers: oftentimes they can plaie the mariners, and seeke for
ships which they neuer lost.[22] But, in fine, they are all theeues
and caterpillers in the commonwealth, and, by the word of God not
permitted to eat, sith they doo but licke the sweat from the true
laborers’ browes, _and_ beereue the godlie poore of that which is
due vnto them, to mainteine their excesse, consuming the charitie of
well-disposed people bestowed vpon them, after a most wicked[23] _and_
detestable maner.
“It is not yet full threescore [24] yeares since this trade began:
but how it hath prospered since that time, it is easie to iudge; for
they are now supposed, of one sex and another, to amount vnto aboue
10,000 persons, as I haue heard reported. Moreouer, in counterfeiting
the Egyptian roges, they haue deuised a language among themselues,
which they name _Canting_ (but other pedlers French)—a speach compact
thirtie yeares since of English, and a great number of od words of
their owne deuising, without all order or reason: and yet such is
it as none but themselues are able to vnderstand. The first deuiser
thereof was hanged by the necke,—a iust reward, no doubt, for his
deserts, and a [Sidenote: Thomas Harman.] common end to all of that
profession. A gentleman, also, of late hath taken great paines to
search out the secret practises of this vngratious rabble. And among
other things he setteth downe and describeth [25]§three _and_ twentie§
sorts of them, whose names it shall not be amisse to remember, wherby
ech one may [26]*take occasion to read and know as also by his
industrie* what wicked people they are, and what villanie remaineth in
them.
“The seuerall disorders and degrees amongst our idle vagabonds:—
1. Rufflers.
2. Vprightmen.
3. Hookers or Anglers.
4. Roges.
5. Wild Roges.
6. Priggers of Prancers.
7. Palliards.
8. Fraters.
9. Abrams.
10. Freshwater mariners, or Whipiacks.
11. Dummerers.
12. Drunken tinkers.
13. Swadders, or Pedlers.
14. Iarkemen, or Patricoes.
Of Women kinde—
1. Demanders for glimmar, or fire.
2. Baudie Baskets.
3. Mortes.
4. Autem mortes.
5. Walking mortes.
6. Doxes.
7. Delles.
8. Kinching Mortes.
9. Kinching cooes.[27]
{xiii}
“The punishment that is ordeined for this kind of people is verie
sharpe, and yet it can not restreine them from their gadding:
wherefore the end must needs be martiall law, to be exercised vpon
them as vpon theeues, robbers, despisers of all lawes, and enimies to
the commonwealth _and_ welfare of the land. What notable roberies,
pilferies, murders, rapes, and stealings of yoong[28] children,
[29]††burning, breaking and disfiguring their lims to make them
pitifull in the sight of the people,†† I need not to rehearse; but for
their idle roging about the countrie, the law ordeineth this maner of
correction. The roge being apprehended, committed to prison, and tried
in the next assises (whether they be of gaole deliuerie or sessions
of the peace) if he happen to be conuicted for a vagabond either
by inquest of office, or the testimonie of two honest and credible
witnesses vpon their oths, he is then immediatlie adiudged to be
greeuouslie whipped and burned through the gristle of the right eare,
with an hot iron of the compasse of an inch about, as a manifestation
of his wicked life, and due punishment receiued for the same. And this
iudgement is to be executed vpon him, except some honest person woorth
fiue pounds in the queene’s books in goods, or twentie shillings in
lands, or some rich housholder to be allowed by the iustices, will
be bound in recognisance to reteine him in his seruice for one whole
yeare. If he be taken the second time, and proued to haue forsaken
his said seruice, he shall then be whipped againe, bored likewise
through the other eare and set to seruice: from whence if he depart
before a yeare be expired, and happen afterward to be attached
againe, he is condemned to suffer paines of death as a fellon (except
before excepted) without benefit of clergie or sanctuarie, as by the
statute dooth appeare. Among roges and idle persons finallie, we find
to be comprised all proctors that go vp and downe with counterfeit
licences, coosiners, and such as gad about the countrie, vsing
vnlawfull games, practisers of physiognomie, and palmestrie, tellers
of fortunes, fensers, plaiers,[30] minstrels, jugglers, pedlers,
tinkers, pretensed[31] schollers, shipmen, prisoners gathering for
fees, and others, so oft as they be taken without sufficient licence.
From [32]‡‡among which companie our bearewards are not excepted, and
iust cause: for I haue read that they haue either voluntarilie, or
for want of power to master their sauage beasts, beene occasion of
the death and deuoration of manie children in sundrie countries by
which they haue passed, whose parents neuer knew what was become of
them. And for that cause there is _and_ haue beene manie sharpe lawes
made for bearwards in Germanie, wherof you may read in other. But to
our roges.‡‡ Each one also that harboreth or aideth them with meat or
monie, is taxed and compelled to fine with the queene’s maiestie for
euerie time that he dooth so succour them, as it {xiv} shall please
the iustices of peace to assigne, so that the taxation exceed not
twentie shillings, as I haue beene informed. And thus much of the
poore, _and_ such prouision as is appointed for them within the realme
of England.”
[Footnote 15: In the first edition of Holinshed (1577) this chapter
is the 5th in Book III. of Harrison’s _Description_.]
[Footnote 16: †–† Not in ed. 1577.]
[Footnote 17: _thorow_ in ed. 1577.]
[Footnote 18: _piteous_ in ed. 1577.]
[Footnote 19: ‡–‡ _lament_ in ed. 1577.]
[Footnote 20: The remainder of this paragraph is not in ed. 1577.]
[Footnote 21: Not in ed. 1577.]
[Footnote 22: Compare _Harman_, p. 48.]
[Footnote 23: The 1577 ed. inserts _horrible_.]
[Footnote 24: The 1577 ed. reads _fifty_.]
[Footnote 25: §–§ The 1577 ed. reads 22, which is evidently an
error.]
[Footnote 26: *–* For these words the 1577 ed. reads _gather_.]
[Footnote 27: The above list is taken from the titles of the
chapters in Harman’s _Caueat_.]
[Footnote 28: Not in the 1577 ed.]
[Footnote 29: ††–†† These words are substituted for _which they
disfigure to begg withal_ in the 1577 ed.]
[Footnote 30: The 1577 ed. inserts _bearwards_.]
[Footnote 31: Not in 1577 ed.]
[Footnote 32: ‡‡–‡‡ These three sentences are not in 1577 ed.]
Among the users of Harman’s book, the chief and coolest was the
author of _The groundworke of Conny-catching_, 1592, who wrote a few
introductory pages, and then quietly reprinted almost all Harman’s
book with an ‘I leaue you now vnto those which by Maister Harman are
discouered’ (p. 103, below). By this time Harman was no doubt dead.—Who
will search for his Will in the Wills Office?—Though Samuel Rowlands
was alive, he did not show up this early appropriator of Harman’s work
as he did a later one. As a kind of Supplement to the _Caueat_, I
have added, as the 4th tract in the present volume, such parts of the
_Groundworke of Conny-catching_ as are not reprinted from Harman. The
_Groundworke_ has been attributed to Robert Greene, but on no evidence
(I believe) except Greene’s having written a book in three Parts on
Conny-catching, 1591–2, and ‘A Disputation betweene a Hee Conny-catcher
and a Shee Conny-catcher, whether a Theafe or a Whore is most hvrtfull
in Cousonage to the Common-wealth,’ 1592.[33] Hearne’s copy of the
_Groundworke_ is bound up in the 2nd vol. of Greene’s Works, among
George III.’s books in the British Museum, as if it really was Greene’s.
Another pilferer from Harman was Thomas Dekker, in his _Belman of
London_, 1608, of which three editions were published in the same year
(_Hazlitt_). But Samuel Rowlands found him out and showed him up. From
the fifth edition of the Belman, the earliest that our copier, Mr W. M.
Wood, could find in the British Museum, he has drawn up the following
account of the book:
_The Belman of London. Bringing to Light the most notorious Villanies
that are now practiced in the Kingdome. Profitable for Gentlemen,
Lawyers, Merchants, Citizens, Farmers, Masters of Housholds, and all
sorts of Servants to mark, and delightfull for all Men to Reade._
Lege, Perlege, Relege.
_The fift Impression, with new additions. Printed at London by Miles
Flesher._ 1640. {xv}
[Footnote 33: Hazlitt’s _Hand Book_, p. 241.]
On the back of the title-page, after the table of contents, the eleven
following ‘secret villanies’ are described, severally, as
“Cheating Law.
Vincent’s Law.
Curbing Law.
Lifting Law.
Sacking Law.
Bernard’s Lawe.
The black Art.
Prigging Law.
High Law.
Frigging Law.
Five Iumpes at Leape-frog.”
After a short description of the four ages of the world, there is an
account of a feast, at which were present all kinds of vagabonds.
Dekker was conveyed, by ‘an old nimble-tong’d beldam, who seemed to
haue the command of the place,’ to an upper loft, ‘where, vnseene, I
might, through a wooden Latice that had prospect of the dining roome,
both see and heare all that was to be done or spoken.’
‘The whole assembly being thus gathered together, one, amongest the
rest, who tooke vpon him a Seniority ouer the rest, charged euery man
to answer to his name, to see if the Iury were full:—the Bill by which
hee meant to call them beeing a double Iug of ale (that had the spirit
of _Aquavitæ_ in it, it smelt so strong), and that hee held in his
hand. Another, standing by, with a toast, nutmeg, and ginger, ready
to cry _Vous avez_ as they were cald, and all that were in the roome
hauing single pots by the eares, which, like Pistols, were charged to
goe off so soone as euer they heard their names. This Ceremony beeing
set abroach, an Oyes was made. But he that was Rector Chory (the
Captain of the Tatterdemalions) spying one to march vnder his Colours,
that had neuer before serued in those lowsie warres, paused awhile
(after hee had taken his first draught, to tast the dexterity of the
liquor), and then began, Iustice-like, to examine this yonger brother
vpon interrogatories.’
This yonger brother is afterwards ‘stalled to the rogue;’ and the
‘Rector Chory[34]’ instructs him in his duties, and tells him the names
and degrees of the fraternity of vagabonds. Then comes the feast, after
which, ‘one who tooke vpon him to be speaker to the whole house,’
began, as was the custom of their meeting, ‘to make an oration in
praise of Beggery, and of those that professe the trade,’ which done,
all the company departed, leaving the ‘old beldam’ and Dekker the only
occupants of the room.
[Footnote 34: Leader of the Choir, Captain of the Company.]
‘The spirit of her owne mault walkt in her brain-pan, so that, what
with the sweetnes of gaines which shee had gotten by her Marchant
{xvi} Venturers, and what with the fumes of drinke, which set her
tongue in going, I found her apt for talke; and, taking hold of this
opportunity, after some intreaty to discouer to mee what these vpright
men, rufflers and the rest were, with their seuerall qualities and
manners of life, Thus shee began.’
And what she tells Dekker is taken, all of it, from Harman’s book.
Afterwards come accounts of the five ‘Laws’ and five jumps at leap-frog
mentioned on the back of the title-page, and which is quoted above, p.
xv.
Lastly ‘A short Discourse of Canting,’ which is, entirely, taken from
Harman, pages 84–87, below.
As I have said before, Dekker was shown up for his pilferings
from Harman by Samuel Rowlands, who must, says Mr Collier in his
Bibliographical Catalogue, have published his _Martin Mark-all, Beadle
of Bridewell_, in or before 1609,—though no edition is known to us
before 1610,—because Dekker in an address ‘To my owne Nation’ in his
_Lanthorne and Candle-light_, which was published in 1609, refers
to Rowlands as a ‘Beadle of Bridewell.’ ‘You shall know him,’ (says
Dekker, speaking of a rival author, [that is, Samuel Rowlands] whom
he calls ‘a Usurper’) ‘by his Habiliments, for (by the furniture he
weares) hee will bee taken for _a Beadle of Bridewell_.’ That this
‘Usurper’ was Rowlands, we know by the latter’s saying in _Martin
Mark-all_, leaf E, i back, ‘although he (the Bel-man, that is, Dekker)
is bold to call me an _vsurper_; for so he doth in his last round.’
Well, from this treatise of Rowlands’, Mr Wood has made the following
extracts relating to Dekker and Harman, together with Rowlands’s own
list of slang words not in Dekker or Harman, and ‘the errour in his
[Dekker’s] words, and true englishing of the same:’
_Martin Mark-all, Beadle of Bridewell; his defence and Answere to
the Belman of London, Discouering the long-concealed Originall and
Regiment of Rogues, when they first began to take head, and how they
haue succeeded one the other successiuely vnto the sixe and twentieth
yeare of King Henry the eight, gathered out of the Chronicle of
Crackeropes, and (as they terme it) the Legend of Lossels. By S[amuel]
R[owlands]._ {xvii}
Orderunt peccare boni virtutis amore,
Orderunt peccare mali formidine pœnæ.
London
_Printed for Iohn Budge and Richard Bonian._ 1610.
‘Martin Mark-all, his Apologie to the Bel-man of London. There hath
been of late dayes great paines taken on the part of the good old
Bel-man of London, in discouering, as hee thinks, a new-found Nation
and People. Let it be so for this time: hereupon much adoe was made
in setting forth their liues, order of liuing, method of speech, and
vsuall meetings, with diuers other things thereunto appertaining.
These volumes and papers, now spread euerie where, so that euerie
Iacke-boy now can say as well as the proudest of that fraternitie,
“will you wapp for a wyn, or tranie for a make?” The gentle Company
of Cursitours began now to stirre, and looke about them; and hauing
gathered together a Conuocation of Canting Caterpillars, as wel in
the North parts at the Diuels arse apeake,[35] as in the South, they
diligently enquired, and straight search was made, whether any had
reuolted from that faithles fellowship. Herupon euery one gaue his
verdict: some supposed that it might be some one that, hauing ventured
to farre beyond wit and good taking heede, was fallen into the hands
of the Magistrate, and carried to the trayning Cheates, where, in shew
of a penitent heart, and remoarse of his good time ill spent, turned
the cocke, and let out all: others thought it might be some spie-knaue
that, hauing little to doe, tooke vpon him the habite and forme of
an Hermite; and so, by dayly commercing and discoursing, learned in
time the mysterie and knowlege of this ignoble profession: and others,
because it smelt of a study, deemed it to be some of their owne
companie, that had been at some free-schoole, and belike, because hee
would be handsome against a good time, tooke pen and inke, and wrote
of that subiect; thus, _Tot homines, tot sententiæ_, so many men, so
many mindes. And all because the spightfull Poet would not set too his
name. At last vp starts an old Cacodemicall Academicke with his frize
bonnet, and giues them al to know, that this invectiue was set foorth,
made, and printed Fortie yeeres agoe. And being then called, ‘A caueat
for Cursitors,’ is now newly printed, and termed, ‘The Bel-man of
London,’ made at first by one Master Harman, a Iustice of Peace in
Kent, in Queene Marie’s daies,—he being then about ten yeeres of age.’
Sign. A. 2.
[Footnote 35: Where at this day the Rogues of the North part, once
euerie three yeeres, assemble in the night, because they will not be
seene and espied; being a place, to those that know it, verie fit
for that purpos,—it being hollow, and made spacious vnder ground;
at first, by estimation, halfe a mile in compasse; but it hath such
turnings and roundings in it, that a man may easily be lost if hee
enter not with a guide.]
‘They (the vagabonds) haue a language among themselues, composed
of _omnium gatherum_; a glimering whereof, one of late daies hath
endeuoured to manifest, as farre as his Authour is pleased to be an
{xviii} intelligencer. The substance whereof he leaueth for those
that will dilate thereof; enough for him to haue the praise, other
the paines, notwithstanding _Harman’s_ ghost continually clogging his
conscience with _Sic Vos non Vobis_.’—Sign. C. 3 back.[36]
[Footnote 36: Of the above passages, Dekker speaks in the following
manner:—“There is an Vsurper, that of late hath taken vpon him the
name of the Belman; but being not able to maintaine that title, hee
doth now call himselfe the Bel-mans brother; his ambition is (rather
out of vaine-glory then the true courage of an experienced Souldier)
to haue the leading of the Van; but it shall be honor good enough
for him (if not too good) to come vp with the Rere. You shall know
him by his Habiliments, for (by the furniture he weares) he will
be taken for a _Beadle of Bridewell_. It is thought he is rather a
Newter then a friend to the cause: and therefore the Bel-man doth
here openly protest that hee comes into the field as no fellow in
armes with him.”—_O per se O_ (1612 edit.), sign. A. 2.]
‘Because the Bel-man entreateth any that is more rich in canting, to
lend him better or more with variety, he will repay his loue double,
I haue thought good, not only to shew his errour in some places in
setting downe olde wordes vsed fortie yeeres agoe, before he was
borne, for wordes that are vsed in these dayes (although he is bold to
call me an vsurper (for so he doth in his last round), and not able
to maintayne the title, but haue enlarged his Dictionary (or _Master
Harman’s_) with such wordes as I thinke hee neuer heard of (and yet
in vse too); but not out of vaine glorie, as his ambition is, but,
indeede, as an experienced souldier that hath deerely paid for it: and
therefore it shall be honour good enough for him (if not too good) to
come vp with the Reare (I doe but shoote your owne arrow back againe),
and not to haue the leading of the Van as he meanes to doe, although
small credite in the end will redound to eyther. You shall know the
wordes not set in eyther his Dictionaries by this marke §: and for
shewing the errour in his words, and true englishing of the same and
other, this marke ¶ shall serue
§ Abram, madde
§ He maunds Abram, he begs as a madde man
¶ Bung, is now vsed for a pocket, heretofore for a purse
§ Budge a beake, runne away
§ A Bite, secreta mulierum
§ Crackmans, the hedge
§ To Castell, to see or looke
§ A Roome Cuttle, a sword
§ A Cuttle bung, a knife to cut a purse
§ Chepemans, Cheape-side market
¶ Chates, the Gallowes: here he mistakes both the simple word, because
he so found it printed, not knowing the true originall thereof, and
also in the compound; as for _Chates_, it should be _Cheates_, which
word is vsed generally for things, as _Tip me that Cheate_, Giue me
that thing: so that if you will make a word for the Gallous, you must
put thereto this word _treyning_, which signifies {xix} hanging; and
so _treyning cheate_ is as much to say, hanging things, or the Gallous,
and not _Chates_.
§ A fflicke, a Theefe
§ Famblers, a paire of Gloues
§ Greenemans, the fields
§ Gilkes for the gigger, false keyes for the doore or picklockes
§ Gracemans, Gratious streete market
§ Iockam, a man’s yard
§ Ian, a purse
§ Iere, a turd
§ Lugges, eares
§ Loges, a passe or warrant
§ A Feager of Loges, one that beggeth with false passes or counterfeit
writings
§ Numans, Newgate Market
¶ Nigling, company keeping with a woman: this word is not vsed now, but
_wapping_, and thereof comes the name _wapping morts_, whoores.
§ To plant, to hide
¶ Smellar, a garden; not smelling cheate, for that’s a Nosegay
§ Spreader, butter
§ Whittington, Newgate.
“And thus haue I runne ouer the Canter’s Dictionary; to speake more at
large would aske more time then I haue allotted me; yet in this short
time that I haue, I meane to sing song for song with the Belman, ere I
wholly leaue him.” [Here follow three Canting Songs.] Sign. E 1, back—E
4.