Musa Pedestris - Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes [1536 - 1896] - LightNovelsOnl.com
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[3: Look! be on your guard]
[4: taken]
[5: gallows: hung]
[6: Tramp or foot-pad.]
[7: housebreaker]
[8: window thief]
[9: valuables]
[10: pickpocket; man or silly fop]
[11: sneaking-thief]
[12: accomplice who jostles whilst another robs: countryman]
[13: thief who hooks goods from shop-windows]
[14: public-house thief]
[15: confidence-trick man; good-natured fool]
[16: steals all his money]
[17: Notes]
[18: an easy dupe]
[19: a lure]
[20: horse-thief]
[21: hung]
[22: sheep-stealer]
[23: as a duffer]
[24: cattle-lifter]
[25: poultry-thief]
[26: b.u.mpkins]
[27: members of the Canting Crew]
FRISKY MOLL'S SONG [1724]
[By J. HARPER, and sung by Frisky Moll in JOHN THURMOND'S _Harlequin Sheppard_ produced at Drury Lane Theatre].
I
From priggs that snaffle the prancers strong, [1]
To you of the _Peter_ Lay, [2]
I pray now listen a while to my song, How my _Boman_ he kick'd away. [3]
II
He broke thro' all rubbs in the whitt, [4]
And chiv'd his darbies in twain; [5]
But fileing of a rumbo ken, [6]
My _Boman_ is snabbled again. [7]
III
I _Frisky Moll_, with my rum coll, [8]
Wou'd Grub in a bowzing ken; [9]
But ere for the scran he had tipt the cole, [10]
The _Harman_ he came in. [11]
IV
A famble, a tattle, and two popps, [12]
Had my _Boman_ when he was ta'en; But had he not bouz'd in the diddle shops, [13]
He'd still been in Drury-Lane.
[1: steal horses]
[2: carriage thieves]
[3: fancy man or sweetheart]
[4: obstacles; Newgate]
[5: cut fetters]
[6: Breaking into a p.a.w.n-broker's]
[7: imprisoned]
[8: good man]
[9: eat; ale-house]
[10: refreshments; paid]
[11: constable]
[12 ring; watch; pistols]
[13 gin-shops]
THE CANTER'S SERENADE [Notes]
[1725]
[from _The New Canting Dictionary_:--"Sung early in the morning, at the barn doors where their doxies have reposed during the night"].
I
Ye morts and ye dells [1]
Come out of your cells, And charm all the palliards about ye; [2]
Here birds of all feathers, Through deep roads and all weathers, Are gathered together to toute ye.
II
With faces of wallnut, And bladder and smallgut, We're come sc.r.a.ping and singing to rouse ye; Rise, shake off your straw, And prepare you each maw [3]
To kiss, eat, and drink till you're bouzy. [4]
[1: women; girls]
[2: beggars [Notes]]
[3: mouth]
[4: drunk,]
