Musa Pedestris - Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes [1536 - 1896] Part 48

_The High Pad's Boast_

See Note to "The Maunder's, Initiation", _ante_.

_The Merry Beggars_

Little is known of the birth or extraction of Richard Brome, and whether he died in 1652 or 1653 is uncertain. For a time he acted as servant to Ben Jonson. _The Jovial Crew_ was produced in 1641 at The c.o.c.k-pit, a theatre which stood on the site of Pitt Place running out of Drury Lane into Gt. Wild St.

Stanza I, line 5. _Go-well and Com-well_ = outgoing and incoming.

_A Mort's Drinking Song_

_See_ Note to "The Merry Beggars," _ante_.

"A Beggar I'll Be"

This ballad is from the Bagford Collection which, formed by John Bagford (1651-1716), pa.s.sed successively through the hands of James West (president of the Royal Society), Major Pearson, the Duke of Roxburghe and Mr. B. H. Bright, until in 1845 it and the more extensive Roxburghe Collection became the property of the nation.

Stanza II, line 1. _Maunder_ = beggar. Line 2. _filer_ = pickpocket; _filcher_ = thief. Line 3. _canter_ = a tramping beggar or rogue. Line 4. _lifter_ = a shop-thief.

Stanza IV, line 8. _Compter_ (or _Counter_), _King's Bench, nor the Fleet_, all prisons for debtors.

Stanza V, line 6, _jumble_ = to copulate.

Stanza VIII, line 5. _With s.h.i.+nkin-ap-Morgan, with Blue-cap, or Teague_ = With a Welshman, Scotchman, or Irishman--generic: as now are Taffy, Sandy, and Pat.

_A Budg And Snudg Song_

Chappell in _Popular English Music of the Olden Time_ says that this song appears in _The Canting Academy_ (2nd ed. 1674) but the writer has been unable to find a copy of the book in question. The song was very popular, and many versions (all varying) are extant. The two given have been carefully collated. The portions in brackets [ ],- -for example stanza II, line 6, stanza III, lines 1--7, stanza IV, lines 5--8 etc.--only appear in the _New Canting Dict_. (1725).

It was sung to the tune now known as _There was a jolly miller once lived on the river Dee_.

t.i.tle. _Budge_ = "one that slips into a house in the dark, and taketh cloaks, coats, or what comes next to hand, marching off with them" (B. E., _Dict. Cant. Crew_, 1690). _Snudge_ = "one that lurks under a bed, to watch an opportunity to rob the house"--(B.

E., _Dict. Cant. Crew_, 1690).

Stanza I, line 7. _Whitt_= Newgate (see Note p. 204).

Stanza V, line 3. _Jack Ketch_, the public hangman 1663-1686.

_The Maunder's Praise Of His Strowling Mort_

_The Triumph of Wit_ by J. s.h.i.+rley is a curious piece of bookmaking--scissors and paste in the main--which ran through many editions. Divided into three parts, the first two are chiefly concerned with "the whole art and mystery of love in all its nicest intrigues", "choice letters with their answers" and such like matters.

Part III contains "the mystery and art of Canting, with the original and present management thereof, and the ends to which it serves, and is employed: Ill.u.s.trated with poems, songs and various intrigues in the Canting language with the explanation, etc." The songs were afterwards included in _The New Canting Dict._ (1725), and later on in _Bacchus and Venus_ (1731).

t.i.tle. _Strowling Mort_ = a beggar's trull:--"pretending to be widows, sometimes travel the countries ... are light-fingered, subtle, hypocritical, cruel, and often dangerous to meet, especially when the ruffler is with them" (B. E., _Dict. Cant. Crew_, 1690).

Stanza I, line 1. _Doxy_--"These Doxes be broken and spoyled of their maydenhead by the upright men, and then they have their name of Doxes, and not afore. And afterwards she is commen and indifferent for any that wyll use her".--Harman, _Caveat_, p. 73. Line 3.

_prats_ = b.u.t.tocks or thighs. Line 4. _wap_ = to copulate (also stanza IV, line i).

Stanza II, line 4. _clip and kiss_ = to copulate.

_The Rum-Mort's Praise Of Her Faithless Maunder_

Obviously a companion song to the previous example: See Note _ante_. _Rum-Mort_ = a beggar or gypsy queen.

Stanza I, line 1. _Kinching-cove_ = (literally) a child or young lad: here as an endearment. Line 4. _Clapperdogeon_ = "The Paillard or Clapperdogeons, are those that have been brought up to beg from their infancy, and frequently counterfeit lameness, making their legs, arms, and hands appear to be sore"--_Triumph of Wit_, p.

185.

Stanza II, line 1. _Dimber-damber_ = a chief man in the Canting Crew, or the head of a gang. Line 2. _Palliard_ (See note Stanza I). Line 3. _jock.u.m_ =_p.e.n.i.s_. Line 4. _glimmer_ = fire; here, a pox or clap.

Stanza V, line 1. _crank_ (or _counterfeit-crank_)--"These that do counterfet the cranke be yong knaves and yonge harlots that deeply dissemble the falling sickness".--(Harman, _Caveat_, 1814, p. 33). Line 1. _dommerar_= a beggar feigning deaf and dumb. Line 2. _rum-maunder_ = to feign madness. Line 3. _Abram-cove_ = a beggar pretending madness to cover theft. Line 4. _Gybes well jerk'd_ = pa.s.s or license cleverly forged.

_The Black Procession_

See Note as to J. s.h.i.+rley on page 209.

_Frisky Moll's Song_

John Harper (d. 1742), actor, originally performed at Bartholomew and Southwark fairs. On 27 Oct. 1721 his name appears as Sir Epicure Mammon in the _Alchemist_ at Drury Lane. Here he remained for eleven years, taking the parts of b.o.o.by squires, fox-hunters, etc., proving himself what Victor calls 'a jolly facetious low comedian'.

His good voice was serviceable in ballad opera and farce. On account of his 'natural timidity', according to Davies, he was selected by Highmore, the patentee, in order to test the status of an actor, to be the victim of legal proceedings taken under the Vagrant Act, 12 Queen Anne, and on 12 Nov. 1733 he was committed to Bridewell as a vagabond.

On 20 Nov. he came before the chief justice of the Kings Bench. It was pleaded on his behalf that he paid his debts, was well esteemed by persons of condition, was a freeholder in Surrey, and a householder in Westminster. He was discharged amid acclamations on his own recognisance.

_The Canter's Serenade_

_The New Canting Dictionary_ (1725) is, in the main, a reprint of _The Dictionary of the Canting_* _Crew_ (_c_. 1696) compiled by B. E. The chief difference is that the former contains a collection of Canting Songs, most of which are included in the present collection.

Stanza I, line 3. _palliards--see_ Note, p. 210, ten lines from bottom.

_"Retoure My Dear Dell"_

_See_ Note to "The Canter's Serenade." This song appears to be a variation of a much older one, generally ascribed to Chas II, ent.i.tled _I pa.s.s all my hours in a shady old grove_.

_The Vain Dreamer_

_See_ Note to "The Canter's Serenade."

_"When My Dimber Dell I Courted"_

_See_ Note to "The Canter's Serenade." The first two stanzas appear in a somewhat different form as "a new song" to the time of _Beauty's Ruin_ in _The Triumph of Wit_ (1707), of which the first stanza is as follows:--

When Dorinda first I courted, She had charms and beauty too; Conquering pleasures when she sported, The transport it was ever new: But wastful time do's now deceive her, Which her glories did uphold; All her arts can ne'er relieve her, Poor Dorinda is grown old.

Stanza I, line 4. _Wap_ = the act of kind. _Dimber dell_ = pretty wench--"A dell is a yonge wenche, able for generation, and not yet knowen or broken by the upright man ... when they have beene lyen with all by the upright man then they be Doxes, and no Dells."-- (HARMAN).

Stanza III, line 3. _Upright-men_--"the second rank of the Canting tribes, having sole right to the first night's lodging with the Dells."--(B. E., _Dict. Cant. Crew_, 1696).