Musa Pedestris - Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes [1536 - 1896] Part 47

Me in my "pearlies" felt a toff that day, [3]

Down at the Welsh 'Arp, which is Endon way.

Oh, 'Arriet, &c.

III

Eight months ago and things is still the same, You're known about 'ere by your maiden name, I'm getting chivied by my pals 'cos why? [4]

Nightly I warbles 'ere for your reply.

Summer 'as gone, and it's a freezin' now, Still love's a burnin' in my 'eart, I vow; Just as it did that 'appy night in May Down at the Welsh 'Arp, which is Endon way.

Oh, 'Arriet, &c.

[1: shout]

[2: finest; trap]

[3: swell]

[4: chaffed]

NOTES

_Rhymes Of The Canting Crew._ [Footnote: Throughout these notes free use has been made of the _National Dictionary of Biography_; a work which, without question, contains the latest and most accurately sifted array of biographical information, much of which could not be obtained from any other source whatever.]

These lines are of little interest apart from the fact of being the earliest known example of the Canting speech or Pedlar's French in English literature. Sorry in point or meaning, they are sorrier still as verse. Yet, antedating, by half a century or more, the examples cited by Awdeley and Harman, they possess a certain value they carry us back almost to the beginnings of Cant, at all events to the time when the secret language of rogues and vagabonds first began to a.s.sume a concrete form.

Usually ascribed to Thomas Dekker (who "conveyed" them bodily, and with errors, to _Lanthorne and Candlelight_, published in 1609) this jingle of popular Canting phrases, strung together almost at haphazard, is the production of Robert Copland (1508-1547), the author of _The Hye Way to the Spyttel House_, a pamphlet printed after 1535, and of which only two or three copies are now known. Copland was a printer-author; in the former capacity a pupil of Caxton in the office of Wynkyn de Worde.

The plan of _The Hye Way_ is simplicity itself. Copland, taking refuge near St. Bartholomew's Hospital during a pa.s.sing shower, engages the porter in conversation concerning the "losels, mighty beggars and vagabonds, the michers, hedge-creepers, fylloks and luskes" that "ask lodging for Our Lord's sake". Thereupon is drawn a vivid and vigorous picture of the seamy side of the social life of the times. All grades of "vagrom men," with their frauds and s.h.i.+fts, are pa.s.sed in review, and when Copland asks about their "bousy" speech, the porter entertains him with these lines.

Lines 2 and 4. _Bousy_ = drunken, sottish, dissipated. So Skelton in _Elynoor Rommin_ (Harl. MSS. ed. Park, I. 416), 'Her face all _bowsie_'. _Booze_ = to drink heavily, is still colloquial; and, = to drink, was in use as early as A.D. 1300. Line 4. _Cove_ (or _Cofe_) = a man, an individual. _Maimed nace_ (_nase_ or _nazy_) = helplessly drunk; Lat. _nausea_ = sickness; _cf_. line 9, '_nace gere_'. Line 5. _Teare_ (_toure_ or _towre_) = to look, to see. _Patrying cove_ (_patrico, patricove_, or _pattercove_) = a strolling priest; _cf_. Awdeley, _Frat. of Vacabondes_ (1560), p. 6.:-- "A Patriarke Co. doth make marriages, and that is untill death depart the married folke, which is after this sort: When they come to a dead Horse or any dead Catell, then they shake hands and so depart, euery one of them a seuerall way." The form _patrying cove_ seems to suggest a derivation from 'pattering' or 'muttering'--the Pater- noster, up to the time of the Reformation, was recited by the priest in a low voice as far as 'and lead us not into temptation' when the choir joined in. _Darkman_

_cace_ (or _case_) = a sleeping apartment or place--ward, barn, or inn: _darkmans_ = night + Lat. _casa_ = house etc.: '_mans_' is a common canting affix = a thing or place: _e.g.

lightmans_ = day; _ruffmans_ = a wood or bush; _greenmans_ = the fields; _Chepemans_ = Cheapside market etc. Line 6. _docked the dell_ = deflowered the girl: _dell_ = virgin; _see_ Harman, _Caveat_ (1575), p. 75:--'A dell is a yonge wenche, able for generation, and not yet knowen or broken by the upright man'. _Coper meke_ (or _make_) = a half-penny.

Line 7. _His watch_ = he: _my watch_ = I, or me: _cf_.

'his nabs' and 'my nabs' in modern slang. _Feng_ (A. S.) = to get, to steal, to s.n.a.t.c.h. _Prounces n.o.bchete_ = prince's hat or cap: _cheat_ (A. S.) = thing, and mainly used as an affix: thus, _belly-chete_ = an ap.r.o.n; _cackling-chete_ = a fowl; _cras.h.i.+ng-chetes_ = the teeth; _nubbing-chete_ = the gallows, and so forth. Line 8. _Cyarum, by Salmon_--the meaning of _cyarum_ is unknown: _by Salmon_ (or _Solomon_) = a beggar's oath, _i.e_., by the altar or ma.s.s. _Pek my jere_ = eat excrement: _cf_. 't.u.r.d in your mouth'. Line 9. _gan_ = mouth. _My watch_, see _ante_, line 7. _Nace gere_ = nauseous stuff: _cf. ante_, line 4: _gere_ = generic for thing, stuff, or material. Line 10. _bene bouse_ = strong drink or wine.

_The Beggar's Curse_

Thomas Dekker, one of the best known of the Elizabethan pamphleteers and dramatists, was born in London about 1570, and began his literary career in 1597-8 when an entry referring to a loan-advance occurs in Henslowe's _Diary_. A month later forty s.h.i.+llings were advanced from the same source to have him discharged from

the Counter, a debtor's prison. Dekker was a most voluminous writer, and not always overparticular whence he got, or how he used, the material for his tracts and plays. _The Belman of London Bringing to Light the Most Notorious Villanies that are now practised in the Kingdome_ (1608) of which three editions were published in one year, consists mainly of pilferings from Harman's _Caveat for Common Curselors_ first published in 1566-7. He did not escape conviction, however, for Samuel Rowlands showed him up in _Martin Mark-All_.

Yet another instance of wholesale "conveyance" is mentioned in the Note to "Canting Rhymes" (_ante_). In spite of this shortcoming, however, and a certain recklessness of workmans.h.i.+p, the scholar of to- day owes Dekker a world of thanks: his information concerning the social life of his time is such as can be obtained nowhere else, and it is, therefore, now of sterling value.

_Lanthorne and Candlelight_ is the second part of _The Belman of London_. Published also in 1608, it ran to two editions in 1609, a fourth appearing in 1612 under the t.i.tle of _O per se O, or a new Cryer of Lanthorne and Candlelight, Being an Addition or Lengthening of the Belman's Second Night Walke_. Eight or nine editions of this second part appeared between 1608 and 1648 all differing more or less from each other, another variation occurring when in 1637 Dekker republished _Lanthorne and Candlelight_ under the t.i.tle of _English Villanies_, shortly after which he is supposed to have died.

_"Towre Out Ben Morts"_

Samuel Rowlands, a voluminous writer _circa_ 1570-1628, though little known now, nevertheless kept the publishers busy for thirty years, his works selling readily for another half century. Not the least valuable of his numerous productions from a social and antiquarian point of view is _Martin Mark-All, Beadle of Bridewell; his Defence and Answere to the Belman of London_ (see both Notes _ante_).

Martin Markall delivers himself of a vivid and "originall" account of "the Regiment of Rogues, when they first began to take head, and how they have succeeded one the other successively unto the sixth and twentieth year of King Henry the Eighth, gathered out of the Chronicle of Crackropes" etc. He then criticizes somewhat severely the errors and omissions in Dekker's Canting glossary, adding considerably to it, and finally joins issue with the Belman in an attempt to give "song for song". Dekker's "Canting Rhymes" (plagiarised from Copland) and "The Beggar's Curse" thus apparently gave birth to the present verses and to those ent.i.tled "The Maunder's Wooing" that follow.

Stanza I, line i. _Ben_ = Lat. _bene_ = good. _Mort_ = a woman, chaste or not. Line 3. _Rome-cove_ = "a great rogue" (B.

E., _Dict. Cant. Crew_, 1690), _i.e_., an organizer, or the actual perpetrator of a robbery: _quire-cove_ = a subordinate thief--the money had pa.s.sed from the actual thief to his confederate.

_Rom_ (or _rum_) and _quier_ (or _queer_) enter largely into combination, thus--_rom_ = gallant, fine, clever, excellent, strong; _rom-bouse_ = wine or strong drink; _rum- bite_ = a clever trick or fraud; _rum-blowen_ = a handsome mistress; _rum-bung_ = a full purse; _rum-diver_ = a clever pickpocket; _rum-padder_ = a well-mounted highwayman, etc.: also _queere_ = base, roguish; _queer-bung_ = an empty purse; _queer-cole_ = bad money; _queer-diver_ = a bungling pickpocket; _queer-ken_ = a prison; _queer-mart_ = a foundered wh.o.r.e, and so forth. _Budge_ = a general verb of action, usually stealthy action: thus, _budge a beak_ = to give the constable the slip, or to bilk a policeman; _to budge out_ (or _off_) = to sneak off; _to budge an alarm_ = to give warning.

_The Maunder's Wooing_

_See_ previous Note.

Stanza II, line 2. _Autem mort_ = a wife; thus Harman, _Caveat_ (1575):--"These Autem Mortes be maried wemen, as there be but a fewe. For Autem in their Language is a Churche; so she is a wyfe maried at the Church, and they be as chaste as a Cowe I have, that goeth to Bull every moone, with what Bull she careth not." Line 5. _wap_ = to lie carnally with.

Stanza IV, line 5. _Whittington_ = Newgate, from the famous Lord Mayor of London who left a bequest to rebuild the gaol. After standing for 230 years Whittington's building was demolished in 1666.

Stanza V, line 2. _Crackmans_ = hedges or bushes. _Tip lowr with thy prat_ = (literally) get money with thy b.u.t.tocks, _i.e._ by prost.i.tution.

Stanza VI, line 2. _Clapperdogen_ = (B. E. _Dict. Cant.

Crew,_ 1690) "a beggar born and bred"; also Harman, _Caveat_, etc. p. 44:--" these go with patched clokes, and have their morts with them, which they call wives."

_"A Gage Of Ben Rom-Bouse"_

Thomas Middleton, another of the galaxy of Elizabethan writers contributing so many sidelights on Shakspeare's life and times, is supposed to have been of gentle birth. He entered Gray's Inn about 1593 and was a.s.sociated with Dekker in the production of _The Roaring Girl_, probably having the larger share in the composition.

Authorities concur in tracing Dekker's hand in the canting scenes, but less certainly elsewhere. The original of Moll Cut-purse was a Mary Frith (1584--1659), the daughter of a shoemaker in the Barbican.

Though carefully brought up she was particularly restive under discipline, and finally became launched as a "bully, pickpurse, fortune-teller, receiver and forger" in all of which capacities she achieved considerable notoriety. As the heroine of _The Roaring Girl_ Moll is presented in a much more favorable light than the facts warrant.

Line 11. _And couch till a palliard docked my dell_ = (literally) 'And lie quiet while a beggar deflowered my girl', but here probably = while a beggar fornicates with my mistress.

_"Bing Out, Bien Morts"_

[See Note to "The Beggar's Curse"]. Dekker introducing these verses affirms "it is a canting song not ... composed as those of the Belman's were, out of his owne braine, but by the Canter's themselves, and sung at their meetings", in which, all things considered, Dekker is probably protesting overmuch.

Stanza V, line 3. _And wapping dell that niggles well_ = a harlot or mistress who "spreads" acceptably.

Stanza IX, line 2. _Bing out of the Rom-vile;_

i.e. to Tyburn, then the place of execution: _Rom-vile_ = London.

_The Song Of The Begger_

_The Description of Love_ is an exceedingly scarce little "garland" which first appeared in 1620; but of that edition no copies are known to exist. Of the sixth edition, from which this example is taken, one copy is in the British Museum and another in the library collected by Henry Huth Esq. A somewhat similar ballad occurs in the Roxburgh Collection I, 42 (the chorus being almost identical), under the t.i.tle of "The Cunning Northern Beggar". The complete t.i.tle is _A Description of Love. With certain Epigrams, Elegies, and Sonnets. And also Mast. Iohnson's Answere to Mast. Withers. With the Crie of Ludgate, and the Song of the Begger. The sixth Edition. London, Printed by M. F. for FRANCIS COULES at the Upper end of the Old-Baily neere Newgate, 1629._

Stanza II, line I. _If a Bung be got by the Hie-law, i.e._ by Highway robbery.

_The Maunder's Initation_

John Fletcher(1579--1625), dramatist, a younger son of Dr. Richard Fletcher afterwards bishop of London, by his first wife Elizabeth, was born in December 1579 at Rye in Suss.e.x, where his father was then officiating as minister. A 'John Fletcher of London' was admitted 15 Oct. 1591 a pensioner of Bene't (Corpus) College, Cambridge, of which college Dr. Fletcher had been president. Dycc a.s.sumes that this John Fletcher, who became one of the bible-clerks in 1593, was the dramatist. Bishop Fletcher died, in needy circ.u.mstances, 15 June 1596, and by his will, dated 26 Oct. 1593, left his books to be divided between his sons Nathaniel and John.

_The Beggar's Bush_ was performed at Court at Christmas 1622, and was popular long after the Restoration.

Fletcher was buried on 29 Aug. 1625 at St. Saviour's, Southwark. 'In the great plague, 1625,' says Aubrey (_Letters written by Eminent Persons,_ vol. ii. pt. i. p. 352), 'a knight of Norfolk or Suffolk invited him into the countrey. He stayed but to make himselfe a suite of cloathes, and while it was makeing fell sick of the plague and died.'