part ii
., Gentlemen), _E. Owen_. 1750
An anonymous work, from which some curious matter may be obtained.
CONYBEARE’S (Dean) Essay on Church Parties, reprinted from the _Edinburgh Review_, No. CC., October, 1853, 12mo. 1858
Several curious instances of religious or pulpit slang are given in this exceedingly interesting little volume.
COTTON’S (Charles) Genuine Poetical Works, 12mo. 1771
Scarronides, or Virgil Travestie, being the first and fourth Books of Virgil’s Æneis, in English burlesque, 8vo, 1672, and other works by this author, contain numerous vulgar words now known as slang.
DECKER’S (Thomas) The Bellman of London; bringing to light the most notorious villanies that are now practised in the Kingdome, 4to, black letter. _London_, 1608
Watt says this is the first book which professes to give an account of the canting language of thieves and vagabonds. But this is wrong, as will have been seen from the remarks on Harman, who collected the words of the vagabond crew half a century before.
DECKER’S (Thomas) Lanthorne and Candle-light, or the Bellman’s Second Night’s Walke, in which he brings to light a brood of more strange villanies than ever were to this year discovered, 4to. _London_, 1608–9
This is a continuation of the former work, and contains the _Canter’s Dictionary_, and has a frontispiece of the London Watchman with his staff broken.
DECKER’S (Thomas) Gulls Hornbook, 4to. 1609
“This work affords a greater insight into the fashionable follies and vulgar habits of Q. Elizabeth’s day than perhaps any other extant.”
DECKER’S (Thomas) O per se O, or a new Cryer of Lanthorne and Candle-light, an Addition of the Bellman’s Second Night’s Walke, 4to, black letter. 1612
A lively description of London. Contains a Canter’s Dictionary, every word in which appears to have been taken from Harman without acknowledgment. This is the first work that gives the Canting Song, a verse of which is inserted at page 20 of the Introduction. This Canting Song was afterwards inserted in nearly all Dictionaries of Cant.
DECKER’S (Thomas) Villanies discovered by Lanthorne and Candle-light, and the Helpe of a new Cryer called O per se O, 4to. 1616
“With Canting Songs neuer before printed.”
DECKER’S (Thomas) English Villanies, eight several times prest to Death by the Printers, but still reviving again, are now the eighth time (as at the first) discovered by Lanthorne and Candle-light, &c., 4to. 1648
The eighth edition of the “_Lanthorne and Candle-light_.”
DICTIONARY of all the Cant and Flash Languages, both Ancient and Modern, 18mo. _Bailey_, 1790
DICTIONARY of all the Cant and Flash Languages, 12mo. _London_, 1797
DICTIONARY of the Canting Crew (Ancient and Modern), of Gypsies, Beggars, Thieves, &c., 12mo. N.D. [1700]
DICTIONNAIRE des Halle, 12mo. _Bruxelles_, 1696
This curious Slang Dictionary sold in the Stanley sale for £4 16s.
DUCANGE ANGLICUS.—The Vulgar Tongue: comprising Two Glossaries of Slang, Cant, and Flash Words and Phrases used in London at the present day, 12mo. 1857
A silly and childish performance, full of blunders and contradictions. A second edition appeared during the past year.
DUNCOMBE’S Flash Dictionary of the Cant Words, Queer Sayings, and Crack Terms now in use in Flash Cribb Society, 32mo, _coloured print_. 1820
DUNTON’S Ladies Dictionary, 8vo. _London_, 1694
Contains a few cant words.
EGAN. Grose’s Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, with the addition of numerous Slang Phrases, edited by Pierce Egan, 8vo. 1823
The best edition of Grose, with many additions, including a Life of this celebrated antiquarian.
EGAN’S (Pierce) Life in London, 2 vols, thick 8vo, _with coloured plates by Geo. Cruikshank, representing high and low life_. 18—
Contains numerous cant, slang sporting, and vulgar words, supposed by the author to form the basis of conversation in life, high and low, in London.
ELWYN’S (Alfred L.) Glossary of supposed _Americanisms_—Vulgar and Slang Words used in the United States, small 8vo. 1859
GENTLEMAN’S MAGAZINE, 8vo. N.D.
“In a very early volume of this parent magazine were given a few pages, by way of sample, of a Slang Vocabulary, then termed Cant. If, as we suspect, this part of the Magazine fell to the share of Dr. Johnson, who was then its editor, we have to lament that he did not proceed with the design.”—_John Bee, in the Introduction to his Slang Dictionary_, 1825.
GENTLEMAN’S MAGAZINE, vol. xcii., p. 520.
Mention made of slang.
GLOSSARIES of County Dialects. V.D.
Many of these will repay examination, as they contain cant and slang words, wrongly inserted as provincial or old terms.
GOLDEN CABINET (The) of Secrets opened for Youth’s delightful Pastime, in 7 parts, the last being the “City and Country Jester;” with a Canting Dictionary, by Dr. Surman, 12mo. _London_, N.D. (1730)
Contains some curious woodcuts.
GREENE’S (Robert) Notable Discovery of Coosnage, now daily practised by sundry lewd persons called Conie-catchers and Crosse biters. Plainly laying open those pernitious sleights that hath brought many ignorant men to confusion. Writen for the general benefit of all Gentlemen, Citizens, Aprentices, Country Farmers, and Yeomen, that may hap to fall into the company of such coosening companions. With a delightful discourse of the coosnage of Colliers, 4to, _with woodcuts_. _Printed by John Wolfe_, 1591
_The first edition._ A copy of another edition, supposed to be _unique_, is dated 1592. It was sold at the Heber sale.
GREENE’S (Robert) Groundworke of Conny-Catching, the manner of their PEDLERS’ FRENCH, and the meanes to understand the same, with the cunning slights of the Conterfeit Cranke. Done by a Justice of the Peace of great Authoritie, 4to, _with woodcuts_. 1592
Usually enumerated among Greene’s works, but it is only a reprint, with variations, of _Harman’s Caveat_, and of which Rowland complains in his Martin Markall. The _second_ and _third_ parts of this curious work were published in the same year. Two other very rare volumes by Greene were published—_The Defence of Cony-Catching_, 4to, in 1592, and THE BLACK BOOKES MESSENGER, in 1595. They both treat on the same subjects.
GROSE’S (Francis, generally styled _Captain_) Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 8vo. 178—
The much sought after FIRST EDITION, but containing nothing, as far as I have examined, which is not to be found in the _second_ and _third_ editions. As respects indecency, I find all the editions equally disgraceful. The Museum copy of the _First Edition_ is, I suspect, Grose’s own copy, as it contains numerous manuscript additions which afterwards went to form the second edition. Excepting the obscenities, it is really an extraordinary book, and displays great industry, if we cannot speak much of its morality. It is the well from which all the other authors—Duncombe, Caulfield, Clarke, Egan, &c. &c.—drew their vulgar outpourings, without in the least purifying what they had stolen.
HAGGART. Life of David Haggart, alias John Wilson, alias Barney M‘Coul, written by himself while under sentence of Death, _curious frontispiece of the Prisoner in Irons_, intermixed with all the Slang and Cant Words of the Day, to which is added a Glossary of the same, 12mo. 1821
HALL’S (B. H.) Collection of College Words and Customs, 12mo. _Cambridge_ (_U.S._), 1856
Very complete. The illustrations are excellent.
HALLIWELL’S Archaic Dictionary, 2 vols, 8vo. 1855
An invaluable work, giving the cant words used by Decker, Brome, and a few of those mentioned by Grose.
HARLEQUIN Jack Shepherd, with a Night Scene in Grotesque Characters, 8vo. (_About_ 1736)
Contains Songs in the Canting dialect.
HARMAN’S (Thomas, Esq.) Caveat or Warening for Common Cursetors, vulgarely called Vagabones, set forth for the utilitie and profit of his naturall countrey, augmented and inlarged by the first author thereof; whereunto is added the tale of the second taking of the counterfeit Crank, with the true report of his behaviour and also his punishment for his so dissembling, most marvellous to the hearer or reader thereof, newly imprinted, 4to. _Imprinted at London, by H. Middleton_, 1573
Contains the earliest Dictionary of the Cant language. Four editions were printed—
William Griffith 1566
William Griffith 1567
William Griffith 1567
Henry Middleton, 1573
What _Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue_ was to the authors of the earlier part of the present century, Harman’s was to the Deckers, and Bromes, and Heads of the seventeenth.
HARRISON’S (William) Description of the Island of Britain (prefixed to Holinshed’s Chronicle), 2 vols, folio. 1577
Contains an account of English vagabonds.
HAZLITT’S (William) Table Talk, 12mo (vol. ii. contains a chapter on _Familiar Style_, with a notice on _Slang Terms_.) V.D.
HEAD’S (Richard) English Rogue, described in the Life of Meriton Latroon, a Witty Extravagant, 4 vols., 12mo. _Frans. Kirkman_, 1671–80
Contains a list of cant words, evidently copied from Decker.
HELL UPON EARTH, or the most pleasant and delectable History of Whittington’s Colledge, otherwise vulgarly called Newgate, 12mo. 1703
HENLEY’S (John, _better known as_ ORATOR HENLEY) Various Sermons and Orations. 1719–53
Contain numerous vulgarisms and slang phrases.
[HITCHING’S (Charles, _formerly City Marshal, now a Prisoner in Newgate_)] Regulator; or, a Discovery of the Thieves, Thief-Takers, and Locks, alias Receivers of Stolen Goods in and about the City of London, also an Account of all the FLASH WORDS _now in vogue amongst the Thieves, &c._, 8vo., VERY RARE, _with a curious woodcut_. 1718
A violent attack upon Jonathan Wild.
HOUSEHOLD WORDS, No. 183, September 24.
Gives an interesting but badly digested article on slang; many of the examples are wrong.
JOHNSON’S (Dr. Samuel) Dictionary (the earlier editions). V.D.
Contains a great number of words italicised as _cant_, low, or barbarous.
JONSON’S (Ben.) Bartholomew Fair, ii., 6.
Several cant words are placed in the mouths of the characters.
JONSON’S (Ben.) Masque of the Gipsies Metamorphosed, 4to. 16—
Contains numerous cant words.
KENT’S (E.) Modern Flash Dictionary, containing all the Cant Words, Slang Terms, and Flash Phrases now in Vogue, 18mo., _coloured frontispiece_. 1825
L’ESTRANGE’S (Sir Roger) Works (principally translations). V.D.
Abound in vulgar and slang phrases.
LEXICON Balatronicum; a Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence, by a Member of the Whip Club, assisted by Hell-fire Dick, 8vo. 1811
One of the many reprints of _Grose’s_ second edition, put forth under a fresh, and what was then considered more attractive title. It was given out in advertisements, &c., as a piece of puff, that it was edited by a Dr. H. Clarke, but it contains scarcely a line more than Grose.
LIBER VAGATORUM: Der Betler Orden, 4to.
The first edition of this book appears to have been printed at Augsburg, by Erhard Öglin, or Ocellus, about 1514,—a small quarto of twelve leaves. It was frequently reprinted at other places in Germany; and in 1528 there appeared an edition at Wittemberg, with a preface by Martin Luther, who says that the “Rotwelsche Sprach,” the cant language of the beggars, comes from the Jews, as it contains many Hebrew words, as anyone who understands that language may perceive. This book is divided into three parts, or sections; the first gives a special account of the several orders of the “Fraternity of Vagabonds;” the second, sundry “_notabilia_” relating to the different classes of beggars previously described; and the third consists of a “Rotwelsche Vocabulary,” or “Canting Dictionary.” There is a long notice of the “Liber Vagatorum” in the “Wiemarisches Jahrbuch,” 10te, Band, 1856. Mayhew, in his “London Labour,” states that many of our cant words are derived from the Jew fences. It is singular that a similar statement should have been made by Martin Luther more than three centuries before.
LIFE IN ST. GEORGE’S FIELDS, or the Rambles and Adventures of Disconsolate William, Esq., and his Surrey Friend, Flash Dick, with Songs and a FLASH DICTIONARY, 8vo. 1821
MAGINN (Dr.) wrote Slang Songs in _Blackwood’s Magazine_. 1827
MAYHEW’S (Henry) London Labour and London Poor, 3 vols, 8vo. 1851
An invaluable work to the inquirer into popular or street language.
MAYHEW’S (Henry) Great World of London, 8vo. 1857
An unfinished work, but containing several examples of the use and application of cant and slang words.
MIDDLETON (Thomas) and DECKER’S (Thomas) Roaring Girl; or Moll Cut Purse, 4to. 1611
The conversation in one scene is entirely in the so-called Pedlar’s French. It is given in _Dodsley’s Old Plays_.
MODERN FLASH DICTIONARY, 48mo. 1825
The smallest slang dictionary ever printed.
MONCRIEFF’S Tom and Jerry, or Life in London, a Farce in Three Acts, 12mo. 1820
An excellent exponent of the false and forced “high life” which was so popular during the minority of George IV. The farce had a run of a hundred nights, or more, and was a general favourite for years. It abounds in cant, and the language of “gig,” as it was then often termed.
MORNINGS AT BOW STREET, by T. Wright, 12mo, _with Illustrations by George Cruikshank_. _Tegg_, 1838
In this work a few etymologies of slang words are attempted.
NEW CANTING DICTIONARY, 12mo. N.D.
A copy of this work is described in _Rodd’s Catalogue of Elegant Literature_, 1845,