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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, part iv., No. 2128, with manuscript notes and additions in the autograph of Isaac Reed, price £1 8s.

NEW DICTIONARY of the Terms, Ancient and Modern, of the Canting Crew in its several tribes of Gypsies, Beggars, Thieves, Cheats, &c., with an addition of some Proverbs, Phrases, Figurative Speeches, &c., by B. E. Gent, 12mo.

N.D. [1710]

Afterwards issued under the title of Bacchus and Venus, 1737, and in 1754 as the Scoundrel’s Dictionary.

NEW DICTIONARY of all the Cant and Flash Languages used by every class of offenders, from a Lully Prigger to a High Tober Gloak, small 8vo., pp. 62.

179 —

Mentioned by John Bee.

NOTES AND QUERIES. The invaluable Index to this most useful periodical may be consulted with advantage by the seeker after etymologies of slang and cant words.

PARKER. High and Low Life, A View of Society in, being the Adventures in England, Ireland, &c., of Mr. G. Parker, a Stage Itinerant, 2 vols in 1, thick 12mo.

Printed for the Author, 1781

A curious work, containing many cant words, with 100 orders of rogues and swindlers.

PARKER’S (Geo.) Life’s Painter of Variegated Characters, with a Dictionary of Cant Language and Flash Songs, to which is added a Dissertation on Freemasonry, portrait, 8vo.

1789

PEGGE’S (Samuel) Anecdotes of the English Language, chiefly regarding the Local Dialect of London and Environs, 8vo.

1803–41

PERRY’S (William) London Guide and Stranger’s Safeguard, against Cheats, Swindlers, and Pickpockets, by a Gentleman who has made the Police of the Metropolis an object of enquiry twenty-two years (no wonder when the author was in prison a good portion of that time!)

1818

Contains a dictionary of slang and cant words.

PHILLIPS’ New World of Words, folio.

1696

PICKERING’S (F.) Vocabulary, or Collection of Words and Phrases which have been supposed to be peculiar to the United States of America, to which is prefixed an Essay on the present state of the English Language in the United States, 8vo.

Boston, 1816

The remark made upon Bartlett’s Americanisms applies equally to this work.

PICTURE OF THE FANCY, 12mo.

18 —

Contains numerous slang terms.

POTTER’S (H. T., of Clay, Worcestershire) New Dictionary of all the Cant and Flash Languages, both ancient and modern, 8vo, pp. 62.

1790

POULTER. The Discoveries of John Poulter, alias Baxter, 8vo, 48 pages.

(1770?)

At pages 42, 43, there is an explanation of the “Language of Thieves, commonly called Cant.”

PRISON BREAKER, The, or the Adventures of John Shepherd, a Farce, 8vo.

London, 1725

Contains a canting song, &c.

PUNCH, or the London Charivari,

Often points out slang, vulgar, or abused words. It also, occasionally, employs them in jokes, or sketches of character.

QUARTERLY REVIEW, vol. x., p. 528.

Gives a paper on Americanisms and slang phrases.

RANDALL’S (Jack, the pugilist, formerly of the “Hole in the Wall,” Chancery lane) Diary of Proceedings at the House of Call for Genius, edited by Mr. Breakwindow, to which are added several of Mr. B.’s minor pieces, 12mo.

1820

Believed to have been written by Thomas Moore. The verses are mostly parodies of popular authors, and abound in the slang of pugilism, and the phraseology of the fast life of the period.

RANDALL (Jack) A Few Selections from his Scrap Book; to which are added Poems on the late Fight for the Championship, 12mo.

1822

Frequently quoted by Moore in Tom Crib’s Memorial.

SCOUNDREL’S DICTIONARY, or an Explanation of the Cant Words used by Thieves, Housebreakers, Street-robbers, and Pickpockets about Town, with some curious dissertations on the Art of Wheedling, &c., the whole printed from a copy taken on one of their gang, in the late scuffle between the watchmen and a party of them on Clerkenwell green, 8vo.

1754

A reprint of Bacchus and Venus, 1737.

SHARP (Jeremy) The Life of an English Rogue, 12mo.

1740

Includes a “Vocabulary of the Gypsies’ Cant.”

SHERWOOD’S Gazetteer of Georgia, U.S., 8vo.

Contains a glossary of words, slang and vulgar, peculiar to the Southern States.

SMITH’S (Capt.) Compleat History of the Lives and Robberies of the most Notorious Highwaymen, Foot-pads, Shop-lifts, and Cheats, of both Sexes, in and about London and Westminster, 12mo, vol. i.

1719

This volume contains “The Thieves New Canting Dictionary Of the Words, Proverbs, &c., used by Thieves.”

SMITH (Capt. Alexander) The Thieves Grammar, 12mo., p. 28.

17 —

A copy of this work is in the collection formed by Prince Lucien Bonaparte.

SMITH’S (Capt.) Thieves Dictionary, 12mo.

1724

SNOWDEN’S Magistrate’s Assistant, and Constable’s Guide, thick small 8vo.

1852

Gives a description of the various orders of cadgers, beggars, and swindlers, together with a Glossary of the Flash Language.

SPORTSMAN’S DICTIONARY, 4to.

17 —

By an anonymous author. Contains some low sporting terms.

STANLEYE’S Remedy, or the Way how to Reform Wandring Beggers, Thieves, etc., wherein is shewed that Sodomes Sin of Idlenes is the Poverty and the Misery of this Kingdome, 4to.

1646

This work has an engraving on wood which is said to be the veritable original of Jim Crow.

SWIFT’S coarser pieces abound in vulgarities and slang expressions.

THE TRIUMPH OF WIT, or Ingenuity display’d in its Perfection, being the Newest and most Useful Academy, Songs, Art of Love, and the Mystery and Art of Canting, with Poems, Songs, &c., in the Canting Language, 16mo.

J. Clarke, 1735

What is generally termed a shilling Chap Book.

THE TRIUMPH OF WIT, or the Canting Dictionary, being the Newest and most Useful Academy, containing the Mystery and Art of Canting, with the original and present management thereof, and the ends to which it serves and is employed, illustrated with Poems, Songs, and various Intrigues in the Canting Language, with the Explanations, &c., 12mo.

Dublin, N.D.

A Chap Book of 32 pages, circa 1760.

THOMAS (I.) My Thought Book, 8vo.

1825

Contains a chapter on slang.

THE WHOLE ART OF THIEVING and Defrauding Discovered: being a Caution to all Housekeepers, Shopkeepers, Salesmen, and others, to guard against Robbers of both Sexes, and the best Methods to prevent their Villanies; to which is added an Explanation of most of the cant terms in the Thieving Language, 8vo, pp. 46.

1786

TOM CRIB’S Memorial to Congress, with a Preface, Notes, and Appendix by one of the Fancy [Tom Moore, the poet], 12mo.

1819

A humorous poem, abounding in slang and pugilistic terms, with a burlesque essay on the classic origin of slang.

VACABONDES, The Fraternatye of, as well of ruflyng Vacabones, as of beggerly, of Women as of Men, of Gyrles as of Boyes, with their proper Names and Qualities, with a Description of the Crafty Company of Cousoners and Shifters, also the XXV. Orders of Knaves; otherwyse called a Quartern of Knaves, confirmed by Cocke Lorell, 8vo. Imprinted at London by John Awdeley, dwellyng in little Britayne streete without Aldersgate.

1575

It is stated in Ames’ Typog. Antiq., vol. ii., p. 885, that an edition bearing the date 1565 is in existence, and that the compiler was no other than old John Audley, the printer, himself. This conjecture, however, is very doubtful. As stated by Watt, it is more than probable that it was written by Harman, or was taken from his works, in MS. or print.

VAUX’S (Count de, a swindler and a pickpocket) Life, written by himself, 2 vols., 12mo, to which is added a Canting Dictionary.

1819

These Memoirs were suppressed on account of the scandalous passages contained in them.

WEBSTER’S (Noah) Letter to the Hon. John Pickering, on the Subject of his Vocabulary, or Collection of Words and Phrases supposed to be peculiar to the United States, 8vo, pp. 69.

Boston, 1817

WILD (Jonathan) History of the Lives and Actions of Jonathan Wild, Thieftaker, Joseph Blake, alias Blue skin, Footpad, and John Sheppard, Housebreaker; together with a Canting Dictionary by Jonathan Wild, woodcuts, 12mo.

1750

WILSON (Professor) contributed various Slang pieces to Blackwood’s Magazine; including a Review of Bee’s Dictionary.

WITHERSPOON’S (Dr., of America) Essays on Americanisms, Perversions of Language in the United States, Cant phrases, &c., 8vo., in the 4th vol. of his Works.

Philadelphia, 1801

The earliest work on American vulgarisms. Originally published in a series of Essays, entitled the Druid, which appeared in a periodical in 1761.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, &c

A.N.– Anglo-Norman.

Ancient, or Ancient English– Whenever these terms are employed, it is meant to signify that the words to which they are attached were in respectable use in or previous to the reign of Elizabeth. – See Old.

Ancient Cant– In use as a cant word in or previous to the reign of Elizabeth.

A.S.– Anglo-Saxon.

Beds.– Bedfordshire.

Cor.– A corruption.

East.– Used in the Eastern Counties.

Eng.– English.

Fren.– French.

Ger.– German.

Glouc.– Gloucestershire.

Hants.– Hampshire.

Ital.– Italian.

L.F.– Lingua Franca, or Bastard Italian.

Lat.– Latin.

Linc.– Lincolnshire.

Midx.– Middlesex.

N.D.– No date.

Norf.– Norfolk.

Old, or Old English– In general use as a respectable word in or previous to the reign of Charles the Second. – See Ancient.

Old Cant– In use as a cant word in or previous to the reign of Charles II.

Oxon.– Oxfordshire.

Prov.– Provincial.

Pug.– Pugilistic.

Sal., or Salop– Shropshire.

Sax.– Saxon, or Anglo-Saxon.

Scot.– Scotch.

Sea– Used principally by Sailors.

Shaks.– Shakspeare.

Som.– Somerset.

Span.– Spanish.

Suf.– Suffolk.

Theat.– Theatrical.

Teut.– Teutonic.

V.D.– Various dates.

West.– Used in the Western Counties.

Wilts.– Wiltshire.

Worc.– Worcestershire.

Yorks.– Yorkshire.