Part 48 (1/2)

_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).