Musa Pedestris - Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes [1536 - 1896] - LightNovelsOnl.com
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[8: Notes]
[9: fetters; wear]
[10: stocks]
[11: constables, look]
[12: pockets; money]
[13: clothes; general plunder]
[14: magistrate]
[15: country]
[16: gallows]
[17: Notes]
[18: night]
[19: hedge]
[20: fire, duck]
[21: goose]
[22: turkey]
[23: bacon]
[24: corn]
[25: any potable; porridge]
[26: dog; wooden dish]
[27: hook; counterfeit pa.s.s]
[28: cloak]
THE BLACK PROCESSION [Notes]
[1712]
[From _The Triumph of Wit_, by J. s.h.i.+RLEY:--"The twenty craftsmen, described by the notorious thief-taker Jonathan Wild"].
Good people, give ear, whilst a story I tell, Of twenty black tradesmen who were brought up in h.e.l.l, On purpose poor people to rob of their due; There's none shall be nooz'd if you find but one true. [1]
The first was a coiner, that stampt in a mould; The second a voucher to put off his gold, [2]
Toure you well; hark you well, see [3]
Where they are rubb'd, [4]
Up to the nubbing cheat where they are nubb'd. [5]
II
The third was a padder, that fell to decay, [6]
Who used for to plunder upon the highway; The fourth was a mill-ken to crack up a door, [7]
He'd venture to rob both the rich and the poor, The fifth was a glazier who when he creeps in, [8]
To pinch all the lurry he thinks it no sin. [9]
Toure you well, etc.
III
The sixth is a file-cly that not one cully spares,[10]
The seventh a budge to track softly upstairs; [11]
The eighth is a bulk, that can bulk any hick, [12]
If the master be nabbed, then the bulk he is sick, The ninth is an angler, to lift up a grate [13]
If he sees but the lurry his hooks he will bait.
Toure you well, etc.
IV
The tenth is a shop-lift that carries a Bob, When he ranges the city, the shops for to rob.
The eleventh a bubber, much used of late; Who goes to the ale house, and steals all their plate, The twelfth is a beau-trap, if a cull he does meet He nips all his cole, and turns him into the street.
Toure you well, etc.
V
The thirteenth a famble, false rings for to sell, [17]
When a mob, he has bit his cole he will tell; The fourteenth a gamester, if he sees the cull sweet [18]
He presently drops down a cog in the street; [19]
The fifteenth a prancer, whose courage is small, [20]
If they catch him horse-coursing, he's nooz'd once for all. [21]
Toure you well, etc.
VI
The sixteenth a sheep-napper, whose trade is so deep, [22]
If he's caught in the corn, he's marked for a sheep [23]
The seventeenth a dunaker, that stoutly makes vows, [24]
To go in the country and steal all the cows; The eighteenth a kid-napper, who spirits young men, Tho' he tips them a pike, they oft nap him again.
Toure you well, etc.
VII
The nineteenth's a prigger of cacklers who harms, [25]
The poor country higlers, and plunders the farms; [26]
He steals all their poultry, and thinks it no sin, When into the hen-roost, in the night, he gets in; The twentieth's a thief-catcher, so we him call, Who if he be nabb'd will be made pay for all.
Toure you well, etc.
[in _Bacchus and Venus_ (1737) an additional stanza is given:--]
VIII
There's many more craftsmen whom here I could name, [27]
Who use such-like trades, abandon'd of shame; To the number of more than three-score on the whole, Who endanger their body, and hazard their soul; And yet; though good workmen, are seldom made free, Till they ride in a cart, and be noozed on a tree.
Toure you well, hark you well, see where they are rubb'd, Up to the nubbing cheat, where they are nubb'd.
[1: hung]
[2: pa.s.ser of base coin]
