me to write that I would not: And whereas he disclaims the name of
Brotherhood, I here vtterly renounce him & his fellowship, as not
desirous to be rosolued of anything he professeth on this subiect,
knowing my selfe to be as fully instructed herein as euer he
was.”—Sign. F.
In the second Part of his _Belman of London_, namely, his _Lanthorne
and Candle-light_, 1609, Dekker printed a Dictionary of Canting, which
is only a reprint of Harman’s (p. 82–4, below). A few extracts from
this _Lanthorne_ are subjoined:
_Canting._
“This word _canting_ seemes to bee deriued from the latine _verbe
canto_, which signifies in English, to sing, or to make a sound
with words,—that is to say, to speake. And very aptly may _canting_
take his deriuation, a _cantando_, from singing, because, amongst
these beggerly consorts that can play vpon no better instruments,
the language of _canting_ is a kind of musicke; and he that
in such assemblies can _cant_ {xx} best, is counted the best
Musitian.”—_Dekker’s Lanthorne and Candle-light_, B. 4. back.
_Specimen of “Canting rithmes.”_
“Enough—with bowsy Coue maund Nace,
Tour the Patring Coue in the Darkeman Case,
Docked the Dell, for a Coper meke
His wach shall feng a Prounces Nab-chete,
Cyarum, by Salmon, and thou shalt pek my Iere
In thy Gan, for my watch it is nace gere,
For the bene bowse my watch hath a win, &c.”
_Dekker’s Lanthorne_, &c., C. 1. back.
A specimen of “Canting prose,” with translation, is given on the same
page.
Dekker’s dictionary of Canting, given in _Lanthorne and Candle-light_,
is the same as that of Harman.
“A Canting Song.
The Ruffin cly the nab of the Harman beck,
If we mawn’d Pannam, lap or Ruff-peck,
Or poplars of yarum: he cuts, bing to the Ruffmans,
Or els he sweares by the light-mans,
To put our stamps in the Harmans,
The ruffian cly the ghost of the Harman beck,
If we heaue a booth we cly the Ierke.
If we niggle, or mill a bowsing Ken
Or nip a boung that has but a win
Or dup the giger of a Gentry cofe’s ken,
To the quier cuffing we bing,
And then to the quier Ken, to scowre the Cramp ring,
And then to the Trin’de on the chates, in the lightmans
The Bube _and_ Ruffian cly the Harman beck _and_ harmans
Thus Englished.
The Diuell take the Constable’s head,
If we beg Bacon, Butter-milke, or bread,
Or Pottage, to the hedge he bids vs hie
Or sweares (by this light) i’ th’ stocks we shall lie.
The Deuill haunt the Constable’s ghoast
If we rob but a Booth, we are whip’d at a poast.
If an ale-house we rob, or be tane with a whore,
Or cut a purse that has inst a penny, and no more,
Or come but stealing in at a Gentleman’s dore
To the Iustice straight we goe,
And then to the Iayle to be shakled: And so {xxi}
To be hang’d on the gallowes i’ th’ day time: the pox
And the Deuill take the Constable and his stocks.”
_Ibid._ C. 3. back.
Richard Head (says Mr Hotten), in his _English Rogue, described in the
Life of Meriton Latroon, a Witty Extravagant_, 4 vols. 12mo., 1671–80,
gave “a glossary of Cant words ‘used by the Gipsies’; but it was only
a reprint of what Decker had given sixty years before,” and therefore
merely taken from Harman too. ‘The Bibliography of Slang, Cant, and
Vulgar Language’ has been given so fully at the end of Mr Hotten’s
Slang Dictionary, that I excuse myself from pursuing the subject
farther. I only add here Mr Wood’s extracts from four of the treatises
on this subject not noticed by Mr Hotten in the 1864 edition of his
Dictionary, but contained (with others) in a most curious volume in
the British Museum, labelled _Practice of Robbers_,—Press Mark 518. h.
2.,—as also some of the slang words in these little books not given by
Harman[37]:
1. _The Catterpillers of this Nation anatomized, in a brief yet
notable Discovery of House-breakers, Pick-pockets, &c. Together with
the Life of a penitent High-way-man, discovering the Mystery of that
Infernal Society. To which is added, the Manner of Hectoring and
trapanning, as it is acted in and about the City of London. London,
Printed for M. H. at the Princes Armes, in Chancery-lane._ 1659.
Ken = miller, house-breaker
lowre, or mint = wealth or money
Gigers jacked = locked doors
Tilers, or Cloyers, equivalent to shoplifters
Joseph, a cloak
Bung-nibber, or Cutpurse = a pickpocket.
――――
2. _A Warning for Housekeepers; or, A discovery of all sorts of
thieves and Robbers which go under these titles, viz.—The Gilter, the
Mill, the Glasier, Budg and Snudg, File-lifter, Tongue-padder, The
private Theif. With Directions how to prevent them, Also an exact
description of every one of their Practices. Written by one who was a
Prisoner in Newgate. Printed for T. Newton_, 1676.
Glasiers, thieves who enter houses, thro’ windows, first remouing a
pane of glass (p. 4). {xxii}
The following is a Budg and Snudg song:—
“The Budge it is a delicate trade,
And a delicate trade of fame;
For when that we have bit the bloe,
We carry away the game:
But if the cully nap us,
And the lurres from us take,
O then they rub us to the whitt,
And it is hardly worth a make.
But when that we come to the whitt
Our Darbies to behold,
And for to take our penitency,
And boose the water cold.
But when that we come out agen,
As we walk along the street,
We bite the Culley of his cole,
But we are rubbed unto the whitt.
And when that we come to the whitt,
For garnish they do cry,
Mary, faugh, you son of a wh――
Ye shall have it by and by.
But when that we come to Tyburn,
For going upon the budge,
There stands Jack Catch, that son of a w――
That owes us all a grudge
And when that he hath noosed us
And our friends tips him no cole
O then he throws us in the cart
And tumbles us into the hole.”—(pp. 5, 6.)
[Footnote 37: We quote from four out of the five tracts contained in
the volume. The title of the tract we do not quote is ‘_Hanging not
Punishment enough_,’ etc., London, 1701.]
On the last page of this short tract (which consists of eight pages) we
are promised:
“In the next Part you shall have a fuller description.”
――――
3. _Street Robberies consider’d; The reason of their being so
frequent, with probable means to prevent ’em: To which is added three
short Treatises_—1. _A Warning for Travellers_; 2. _Observations on
House-breakers_; 3. _A Caveat for Shopkeepers. London, J. Roberts._ [no
date] _Written by a converted Thief._
_Shepherd_ is mentioned in this book as being a clever prison breaker
(p. 6). There is a long list of slang words in this tract. The
following are only a few of them:
Abram, Naked
Betty, a Picklock
Bubble-Buff, Bailiff
Bube, Pox
Chive, a Knife
Clapper dudgeon, a beggar born
Collar the Cole, Lay hold on the money {xxiii}
Cull, a silly fellow
Dads, an old man
Darbies, Iron
Diddle, Geneva
Earnest, share
Elf, little
Fencer, receiver of stolen goods
Fib, to beat
Fog, smoke
Gage, Exciseman
Gilt, a Picklock
Grub, Provender
Hic, booby
Hog, a shilling
Hum, strong
Jem, Ring
Jet, Lawyer
Kick, Sixpence
Kin, a thief
Kit, Dancing-master
Lap, Spoon-meat
Latch, let in
Leake, Welshman
Leap, all safe
Mauks, a whore
Mill, to beat
Mish, a smock
Mundungus, sad stuff
Nan, a maid of the house
Nap, an arrest
Nimming, stealing
Oss Chives, Bone-handled knives
Otter, a sailor
Peter, Portmantua
Plant the Whids, take care what you say
Popps, Pistols
Rubbs, hard shifts
Rumbo Ken, Pawn-brokers
Rum Mort, fine Woman
Smable, taken
Smeer, a painter
Snafflers, Highwaymen
Snic, to cut
Tattle, watch
Tic, trust
Tip, give
Tit, a horse
Tom Pat, a parson
Tout, take heed
Tripe, the belly
Web, cloth
Wobble, to boil
Yam, to eat
Yelp, a crier
Yest, a day ago
Zad, crooked
Znees, Frost
Zouch, an ungenteel man
&c., a Bookseller
“The King of the Night, as the Constables please to term themselves,
should be a little more active in their employment; but all their
business is to get to a watch house and guzzle, till their time of
going home comes.” (p. 60.)
“A small bell to Window Shutters would be of admirable use to prevent
Housebreakers.” (p. 70.)
――――
4. _A true discovery of the Conduct of Receivers and Thief-Takers, in
and about the City of London_, &c., &c. _London_, 1718.
This pamphlet is “design’d as preparatory to a larger Treatise, wherein
shall be propos’d Methods to extirpate and suppress for the future such
villanous Practices.” It is by “Charles Hitchin, one of the Marshals of
the City of London.”
I now take leave of Harman, with a warm commendation of him to the
reader. {xxiv}
――――
The third piece in the present volume is a larky Sermon in praise of
Thieves and Thievery, the title of which (p. 93, below) happened to
catch my eye when I was turning over the Cotton Catalogue, and which
was printed here, as well from its suiting the subject, as from a
pleasant recollection of a gallop some 30 years ago in a four-horse
coach across Harford-Bridge-Flat, where Parson Haben (or Hyberdyne),
who is said to have preached the Sermon, was no doubt robbed. My
respected friend Goody-goody declares the sermon to be ‘dreadfully
irreverent;’ but one needn’t mind him. An earlier copy than the Cotton
one turned up among the Lansdowne MSS, and as it differed a good deal
from the Cotton text, it has been printed opposite to that.
Of the fourth piece in this little volume, _The Groundworke of
Conny-catching_, less its reprint from Harman, I have spoken above, at
p. xiv. There was no good in printing the whole of it, as we should
then have had Harman twice over.
――――
The growth of the present Text was on this wise: Mr Viles suggested a
reprint of Stace’s reprint of Harman in 1573, after it had been read
with the original, and collated with the earlier editions. The first
edition I could not find, but ascertained, with some trouble, and
through Mr H. C. Hazlitt, where the second and third editions were, and
borrowed the 3rd of its ever-generous owner, Mr Henry Huth. Then Mr
Hazlitt told me of Awdeley, which he thought was borrowed from Harman.
However, Harman’s own words soon settled that point; and Awdeley had to
precede Harman. Then the real bagger from Harman, the _Groundworke_,
had to be added, after the Parson’s Sermon. Mr Viles read the proofs
and revises of Harman with the original: Mr Wood and I have made the
Index; and I, because Mr Viles is more desperately busy than myself,
have written the Preface.
The extracts from Mr J. P. Collier must be taken for what they are
worth. I have not had time to verify them; but assume them to be
correct, and not ingeniously or unreasonably altered from their
originals, like Mr Collier’s print of Henslowe’s Memorial, of which
{xxv} Dr Ingleby complains,[38] and like his notorious Alleyn
letter. If some one only would follow Mr Collier through all his
work—pending his hoped-for Retractations,—and assure us that the two
pieces above-named, and the Perkins Folio, are the only things we need
reject, such some-one would render a great service to all literary
antiquarians, and enable them to do justice to the wonderful diligence,
knowledge, and acumen, of the veteran pioneer in their path. Certainly,
in most of the small finds which we workers at this Text thought we
had made, we afterwards found we had been anticipated by Mr Collier’s
_Registers of the Stationers’ Company_, or _Bibliographical Catalogue_,
and that the facts were there rightly stated. {xxvi} That there is
pure metal in Mr Collier’s work, and a good deal of it, few will doubt;
but the dross needs refining out. I hope that the first step in the
process may be the printing of the whole of the Stationers’ Registers
from their start to 1700 at least, by the Camden Society,—within
whose range this work well lies,—or by the new Harleian or some other
Society. It ought not to be left to the ‘Early English Text’ to do some
20 years hence.
F. J. FURNIVALL.
_29 Nov., 1869._
[Footnote 38: To obviate the possibility of mistake in the lection
of this curious document, Mr E. W. Ashbee has, at my request, and by
permission of the Governors of Dulwich College (where the paper is
preserved), furnished me with an exact fac-simile of it, worked off
on somewhat similar paper. By means of this fac-simile my readers
may readily assure themselves that in no part of the memorial is
Lodge called a “player;” indeed he is not called “Thos. Lodge,” and
it is only an inference, an unavoidable conclusion, that the Lodge
here spoken of is Thomas Lodge, the dramatist. Mr Collier, however,
professes to find that he is there called “Thos. Lodge,” and that it
[the Memorial] contains this remarkable grammatical inversion;
“and haveinge some knowledge and acquaintaunce of him as a player,
requested me to be his baile,”
which is evidently intended to mean, _as I had some knowledge and
acquaintance of Lodge as a player, he requested me to be his baile_.
But in this place the original paper reads thus,
“and havinge of me some knowledge and acquaintnunce requested me to
be his bayle,”
meaning, of course, _Lodge, having some knowledge and acquaintance
of me, requested me to be his bail_.
The interpolation of the five words needed to corroborate Mr
Collier’s explanation of the misquoted passage from Gosson, and the
omission of two other words inconsistent with that interpolation,
may be thought to exhibit some little ingenuity; it was, however,
a feat which could have cost him no great pains. But the labour
of recasting the orthography of the memorial must have been
considerable; while it is difficult to imagine a rational motive to
account for such labour being incurred. To expand the abbreviations
and modernize the orthography might have been expedient, as it would
have been easy. But, in the name of reason, what is the gain of
writing _wheare_ and _theare_ for “where” and “there;” _cleere_,
_yeeld_, and _meerly_ for “clere,” “yealde,” and “merely;” _verie_,
_anie_, _laie_, _waie_, _paie_, _yssue_, and _pryvily_, for “very,”
“any,” “lay,” “way,” “pay,” “issue,” and “privylie;” _sondrie_,
_begon_, and _doen_ for “sundrie,” “began,” and “don;” and
_thintent_, _thaction_, and _thacceptaunce_ for “the intent,” “the
action,” and “the acceptaunce”?—p. 11 of Dr C. M. Ingleby’s ‘_Was
Thomas Lodge an Actor? An Exposition touching the Social Status of
the Playwright in the time of Queen Elisabeth_.’ Printed for the
Author by R. Barrett and Sons, 13 Mark Lane, 1868. 2_s._ 6_d._]
P.S. For a curious Ballad describing beggars’ tricks in the 17th
century, say about 1650, see the Roxburghe Collection, i. 42–3, and
the Ballad Society’s reprint, now in the press for 1869, i. 137–41,
‘_The cunning Northerne Beggar_’: 1. he shams lame; 2. he pretends to
be a poor soldier; 3. a sailor; 4. cripple; 5. diseased; 6. festered
all over, and face daubed with blood; 7. blind; 8. has had his house
burnt.
――――
NOTES.
p. vii. ix, p. 19, 20. _Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury, and her
parish._ The manor of Erith was granted to Elizabeth, Countess of
Shrewsbury, by Henry VIII. in the 36th year of his reign, A.D. 1544–5.
The Countess died in 1567, and was buried in the parish church of
Erith. “The manor of Eryth becoming part of the royal revenue,
continued in the crown till K. Henry VIII. in his 36th year, granted
it in fee to Elizabeth, relict of George, Earl of Shrewsbury, by the
description of the _manor, of Eryth, alias Lysnes_, with all its
members and appurts., and also all that wood, called Somersden, lying
in Eryth, containing 30 acres; and a wood, called Ludwood, there,
containing 50 acres; and a wood, called Fridayes-hole, by estimation,
20 acres, to hold of the King _in capite_ by knight’s service.[39]
She was the second wife of George, Earl of {xxvii} Shrewsbury, Knight
of the Garter,[40] who died July 26, anno 33 K. Henry VIII.,[41] by
whom she had issue one son, John, who died young; and Anne, married
to Peter Compton, son and heir of Sir Wm. Compton, Knt., who died
in the 35th year of K. Henry VIII., under age, as will be mentioned
hereafter. Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury, in Easter Term, in
the 4th year of Q. Elizabeth, levied a fine of this manor, with the
passage over the Thames; and dying in the tenth year of that reign,
anno 1567,[42] lies buried under a sumptuous tomb, in this church.
Before her death this manor, &c., seem to have been settled on her
only daughter Anne, then wife of Wm. Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, and
widow of Peter Compton, as before related, who was in possession of
it, with the passage over the Thames, anno 9 Q. Elizabeth.”—Hasted’s
_History of Kent_, vol. i. p. 196.
p. ix. In Lambarde’s _Perambulation of Kent_ (edit. 1826), p. 66, he
mentions “Thomas Harman” as being one of the “Kentish writers.”
Lambarde, in the same volume, p. 60, also mentions “Abacuk Harman” as
being the name of one “of suche of the nobilitie and gentrie, as the
Heralds recorded in their visitation in 1574.”
There is nothing about Harman in Mr Sandys’s book on Gavelkind, &c.,
_Consuetudines Cantiæ_. To future inquirers perhaps the following book
may be of use:
“_Bibliotheca Cantiana_: A Bibliographical Account of what has been
published on the History, Topography, Antiquities, Customs, and Family
History of the County of Kent.” By John Russell Smith.
p. 1, 12. _The xxv. Orders of Knaues._—Mr Collier gives an entry in
the Stationers’ Registers in 1585–6: “Edward White. Rd. of him, for
printinge xxij^{tl} ballades at iiij^d a peece—vij^s iiij^d, and
xiiij. more at ij^d a peece ij^s iiij^d . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix^s
viij^d” And No. 23 is “The xxv^{tle} orders of knaves.”—_Stat. Reg._
ii. 207.
p. 22. _The last Duke of Buckingham was beheaded._—Edward Stafford,
third Duke of Buckingham, one of Henry VIII’s and Wolsey’s victims,
was beheaded on Tower Hill, May 17, 1521, for ‘imagining’ the king’s
death. (‘The murnynge of Edward Duke of Buckyngham’ was one of certain
‘ballettes’ licensed to Mr John Wallye and Mrs Toye in 1557–8, says
Mr J. P. Collier, _Stat. Reg._ i. 4.) His father (Henry Stafford)
before him suffered the same fate in 1483, having been betrayed by
his servant Bannister after his unsuccessful rising in Brecon.—_Percy
Folio Ballads_, ii. 253. {xxviii}
p. 23. _Egiptians._ The Statute 22 Hen. VIII. c. 10 is _An Acte
concernyng Egypsyans_. After enumerating the frauds committed by
the “outlandysshe people callynge themselfes Egyptians,” the first
section provides that they shall be punished by Imprisonment and
loss of goods, and be deprived of the benefit of 8 Hen. VI. c. 29.
“de medietate linguæ.” The second section is a proclamation for the
departure from the realm of all such Egyptians. The third provides
that stolen goods shall be restored to their owners: and the fourth,
that one moiety of the goods seized from the Egyptians shall be given
to the seizer.
p. 48, l. 5. _The Lord Sturtons man; and when he was executed._
Charles Stourton, 7th Baron, 1548–1557:—“Which Charles, with the help
of four of his own servants in his own house, committed a shameful
murther upon one Hargill, and his son, with whom he had been long
at variance, and buried their Carcasses 50 foot deep in the earth,
thinking thereby to prevent the discovery; but it coming afterwards to
light, he had sentence of death passed upon him, which he suffer’d at
Salisbury, the 6th of March, Anno 1557, 4 Phil. & Mary, by an Halter
of Silk, in respect of his quality.”—_The Peerage of England_, vol.
ii. p. 24 (Lond., 1710).
p. 77. _Saint Quinten’s._ Saint Quinten was invoked against coughs,
says Brand, ed. Ellis, 1841, i. 196.
p. 77. _The Three Cranes in the Vintry._ “Then the Three Cranes’ lane,
so called, not only of _a sign of three cranes at a tavern door_, but
rather of three strong cranes of timber placed on the Vintry wharf by
the Thames side, to crane up wines there, as is afore showed. This
lane was of old time, to wit, the 9th of Richard II., called The
Painted Tavern lane, of the tavern being painted.”—Stow’s _Survey of
London_, ed. by Thoms, p. 90.
“The Three Cranes was formerly a favourite London sign. With the usual
jocularity of our forefathers, an opportunity for punning could not
be passed; so, instead of the three cranes, which in the vintry used
to lift the barrels of wine, three birds were represented. The Three
Cranes in Thames Street, or in the vicinity, was a famous tavern as
early as the reign of James I. It was one of the taverns frequented by
the wits in Ben Jonson’s time. In one of his plays he says:—
‘A pox o’ these pretenders! to wit, your _Three Cranes_, Mitre and
Mermaid men! not a corn of true salt, not a grain of right mustard
among them all!’—_Bartholomew Fair_, act i. sc. 1.
“On the 23rd of January, 1661/2 Pepys suffered a strong mortification
of the flesh in having to dine at this tavern with some poor
relations. The sufferings of the snobbish secretary must have been
intense:—
‘By invitation to my uncle Fenner’s, and where I found his new wife,
a _pitiful, old, ugly, ill-bred_ woman in a hatt, a mid-wife. Here
were many of his, and as many of her, relations, _sorry, mean people_;
and after choosing our gloves, we all went over to the Three Cranes
Taverne: {xxvix} and though the best room of the house, in such a
narrow dogghole we were crammed, and I believe we were near 40, that
it made me loath my company and victuals, and a very poor dinner it
was too.’
“Opposite this tavern people generally left their boats to shoot
the bridge, walking round to Billingsgate, where they would reenter
them.”—Hotten’s _History of Signboards_, p. 204.
p. 77. _Saynt Iulyans in Thystellworth parish._ ‘Thistleworth, see
Isleworth,’ says Walker’s Gazetteer, ed. 1801. That there might well
have been a St Julyan’s Inn there we learn from the following extract:
“St. Julian, the patron of travellers, wandering minstrels,
boatmen,[43] &c., was a very common inn sign, because he was supposed
to provide good lodgings for such persons. Hence two St Julian’s
crosses, in saltier, are in chief of the innholders’ arms, and
the old motto was:—‘When I was harbourless, ye lodged me.’ This
benevolent attention to travellers procured him the epithet of ‘the
good herbergeor,’ and in France ‘_bon herbet_.’ His legend in a MS.,
Bodleian, 1596, fol. 4, alludes to this:—
‘Therfore yet to this day, thei that over lond wende,
They biddeth Seint Julian, anon, that gode herborw he hem sende;
And Seint Julianes Pater Noster ofte seggeth also
For his faders soule, and his moderes, that he hem bring therto.’
And in ‘_Le dit de s Heureux_,’ an old French fabliau:—
‘Tu as dit la patenotre
Saint Julian à cest matin,
Soit en Roumans, soit en Latin;
Or tu seras bien ostilé.’
In mediæval French, _L’hotel Saint Julien_ was synonymous with good
cheer.
‘―Sommes tuit vostre.
Par Saint Pierre le bon Apostre,
L’ostel aurez Saint Julien,’
says Mabile to her feigned uncle in the fabliau of ‘_Boivin de
Provins_;’ and a similar idea appears in ‘Cocke Lorell’s bote,’ where
the crew, after the entertainment with the ‘relygyous women’ from the
Stews’ Bank, at Colman’s Hatch,
‘Blessyd theyr shyppe when they had done,
And dranke about a _Saint Julyan’s_ tonne.’
Hotten’s _History of Signboards_,” p. 283.
“Isleworth in Queen Elizabeth’s time was commonly in conversation,
{xxx} and sometimes in records, called Thistleworth.”—Lysons’
_Environs of London_, vol. iii. p. 79.
p. 77. _Rothered_: ? Rotherhithe.
p. 77. _The Kynges Barne_, betwene Detforde and Rothered, can hardly
be the great hall of Eltham palace. Lysons (_Environs of London_, iv.
p. 399) in 1796, says the hall was then used as a barn; and in vol.
vi. of the _Archæologia_, p. 367, it is called “King John’s Barn.”
p. 77. _Ketbroke._ Kidbrooke is marked in large letters on the east
of Blackheath on the mordern Ordnance-map; and on the road from
Blackheath to Eltham are the villages or hamlets of Upper Kidbrooke
and Lower Kidbrooke.
“Kedbrooke lies adjoining to Charlton, on the south side of the London
Road, a small distance from Blackheath. It was antiently written
Cicebroc, and was once a parish of itself, though now (1778 A.D.) it
is esteemed as an appendage to that of Charlton.”—Hasted’s _History of
Kent_, vol. i. p. 40.