part ii

. act i. scene 1), has the word; and Mr. Halliwell, one of the greatest and most industrious of living antiquaries, informs us that “the commentators do not supply another example.” If Shakspeare was not a pugilist, he certainly anticipated the terms of the prize-ring—or they were respectable words before the prize-ring was thought of—for he has “pay,” to beat or thrash, and “pepper,” with a similar meaning; also “fancy,” in the sense of pets and favourites,—pugilists are often termed “the ‘fancy.’” The origin of the term, as applied to them, has, however, never been satisfactorily decided, though Pierce Egan and others since his time have speculated ingeniously on the subject. The Cant word “prig,” from the Saxon _priccan_, to filch, is also Shakspearian; so, indeed, is “piece,” a contemptuous term for a young woman. Shakspeare was not the only vulgar dramatist of his time. Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Brome, and other play-writers, occasionally, and very naturally, put Cant words into the mouths of their low characters, or employed old words which have since degenerated into vulgarisms. “Crusty,” poor tempered; “two of a kidney,” two of a sort; “lark,” a piece of fun; “lug,” to pull; “bung,” to give or pass; “pickle,” a sad plight; “frump,” to mock, are a few specimens casually picked from the works of the old histrionic writers.

One old English mode of canting, simple enough, but affected only by the most miserable impostors, was the inserting a consonant betwixt each syllable; thus, taking _g_, “How do you do?” would be “How_g_ do_g_ you_g_ do_g_?” The name very properly given to this disagreeable nonsense, we are informed by Grose, was gibberish.

Another slang has been manufactured by transposing the initial letters of words, so that a mutton chop becomes a _ch_utton _m_op, and a pint of stout a _st_int of _p_out; but it is satisfactory to know that it has gained no ground, as it is remarkable for nothing so much as poverty of resource on the part of its inventors. This is called “Marrowskying,” or “Medical Greek,” from its use by medical students at the hospitals. Albert Smith termed it the “Gower Street Dialect,” and referred to it occasionally in his best-known works.

The “Language of Ziph,” it may be noted, is another rude mode of disguising English, in use among the students at Winchester College. Some notices of this method of conveying secret information, with an extensive Glossary of the Words, Phrases, Customs, &c., peculiar to the College, may be found in Mr. Mansfield’s _School Life at Winchester College_. It is certainly too puerile a specimen of work to find place here.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] “Swarms of vagabonds, whose eyes were so sharp as Lynx.”—_Bullein’s Simples and Surgery_, 1562.

[2] Probably from the Gipsies, who were supposed to come from Germany into Spain.

[3] From _Roter_, beggar, vagabond, and _wälsch_, foreign. See Dictionary of Gipsy language in Pott’s _Zigeuner in Europa und Asien_, vol. ii., Halle, 1844. The Italian cant is called Fourbesque, and the Portuguese Calao. See Francisque-Michel, _Dictionnaire d’Argot_, Paris, 1856.

[4] Richardson’s _Dictionary_.

[5] _Description of England_, prefixed to Holinshed’s _Chronicle_.

[6] The word Slang, as will be seen in the chapter upon that subject, is purely a Gipsy term, although nowadays it refers to low or vulgar language of any kind, other than cant. Slang and Gibberish in the Gipsy language are synonymous; but, as English adoptions, have meanings very different from that given to them in their original.

[7] “The vulgar tongue consists of two parts; the first is the Cant language; the second, those burlesque phrases, quaint allusions, and nicknames for persons, things, and places, which, from long uninterrupted usage, are made classical by prescription.”—Grose’s _Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue_, 1st edition, 1785.

[8] “Outlandish people calling themselves Egyptians.”—1530.

[9] Jabber may be, after all, only another form of GABBER, GAB, very common in Old English, from the _Anglo-Saxon_, GÆBBAN.

[10] This very proverb was mentioned by a young Gipsy to Crabb, some years ago.—_Gipsies’ Advocate_, p. 14.

[11] _Gipsies in Spain_, vol. i. p. 18.

[12] Shaks. _Henry IV._,