Part 3

‘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.

“And thus hath the Belman, through his pitifull ambition, caused 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.

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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.”

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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.)

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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}

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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.

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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.

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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:—