The Belman of London. Bringing to Light the most notorious Villanies that are now practised in the Kingdome. Profitable for Gentlemen, Lawyers, Merchants, Citizens, Farmers, Masters of Housholds, and all sorts of Servants to mark, and delightfull for all Men to Reade.
Lege, Perlege, Relege.
The fift Impression, with new additions. Printed at London by Miles Flesher. 1640.
On the back of the title-page, after the table of contents, the eleven following 'secret villanies' are described, severally, as
Five Iumpes at Leape-frog."
After a short description of the four ages of the world, there is an account of a feast, at which were present all kinds of vagabonds. Dekker was conveyed, by 'an old nimble-tong'd beldam, who seemed to haue the command of the place,' to an upper loft, 'where, vnseene, I might, through a wooden Latice that had prospect of the dining roome, both see and heare all that was to be done or spoken.'
'The whole assembly being thus gathered together, one, amongest the rest, who tooke vpon him a Seniority ouer the rest, charged euery man to answer to his name, to see if the Iury were full:—the Bill by which hee meant to call them beeing a double Iug of ale (that had the spirit of Aquavitæ in it, it smelt so strong), and that hee held in his hand. Another, standing by, with a toast, nutmeg, and ginger, ready to cry Vous avez as they were cald, and all that were in the roome hauing single pots by the eares, which, like Pistols, were charged to goe off so soone as euer they heard their names. This Ceremony beeing set abroach, an Oyes was made. But he that was Rector Chory (the Captain of the Tatterdemalions) spying one to march vnder his Colours, that had neuer before serued in those lowsie warres, paused awhile (after hee had taken his first draught, to tast the dexterity of the liquor), and then began, Iustice-like, to examine this yonger brother vpon interrogatories.'
This yonger brother is afterwards 'stalled to the rogue;' and the 'Rector Chory[34]' instructs him in his duties, and tells him the names and degrees of the fraternity of vagabonds. Then comes the feast, after which, 'one who tooke vpon him to be speaker to the whole house,' began, as was the custom of their meeting, 'to make an oration in praise of Beggery, and of those that professe the trade,' which done, all the company departed, leaving the 'old beldam' and Dekker the only occupants of the room.
'The spirit of her owne mault walkt in her brain-pan, so that, what with the sweetnes of gaines which shee had gotten by her Marchant Venturers, SAMUEL ROWLANDS'S MARTIN MARK-ALL.and what with the fumes of drinke, which set her tongue in going, I found her apt for talke; and, taking hold of this opportunity, after some intreaty to discouer to mee what these vpright men, rufflers and the rest were, with their seuerall qualities and manners of life, Thus shee began.'
And what she tells Dekker is taken, all of it, from Harman's book.
Afterwards come accounts of the five 'Laws' and five jumps at leap-frog mentioned on the back of the title-page, and which is quoted above, p. xv.
Lastly 'A short Discourse of Canting,' which is, entirely, taken from Harman, pages 84-87, below.
As I have said before, Dekker was shown up for his pilferings from Harman by Samuel Rowlands, who must, says Mr Collier in his Bibliographical Catalogue, have published his Martin Mark-all, Beadle of Bridewell, in or before 1609,—though no edition is known to us before 1610,—because Dekker in an address 'To my owne Nation' in his Lanthorne and Candle-light, which was published in 1609, refers to Rowlands as a 'Beadle of Bridewell.' 'You shall know him,' (says Dekker, speaking of a rival author, [that is, Samuel Rowlands] whom he calls 'a Usurper') 'by his Habiliments, for (by the furniture he weares) hee will bee taken for a Beadle of Bridewell.' That this 'Usurper' was Rowlands, we know by the latter's saying in Martin Mark-all, leaf E, i back, 'although he (the Bel-man, that is, Dekker) is bold to call me an usurper; for so he doth in his last round.'
Well, from this treatise of Rowlands', Mr Wood has made the following extracts relating to Dekker and Harman, together with Rowlands's own list of slang words not in Dekker or Harman, and 'the errour in his [Dekker's] words, and true englishing of the same:'
Martin Mark-all, Beadle of Bridewell; his defence and Answere to the Belman of London, Discouering the long-concealed Originall and Regiment of Rogues, when they first began to take head, and how they haue succeeded one the other successiuely vnto the sixe and twentieth yeare of King Henry the eight, gathered out of the Chronicle of Crackeropes, and (as they terme it) the Legend of Lossels. By S[amuel] R[owlands].
London
Printed for Iohn Budge and Richard Bonian. 1610.
'Martin Mark-all, his Apologie to the Bel-man of London. There hath been of late dayes great paines taken on the part of the good old Bel-man of London, in discouering, as hee thinks, a new-found Nation and People. Let it be so for this time: hereupon much adoe was made in setting forth their lines, order of lining, method of speech, and vsuall meetings, with diuers other things thereunto appertaining. These volumes and papers, now spread euerie where, so that euerie Iacke-boy now can say as well as the proudest of that fraternitie, "will you wapp for a wyn, or tranie for a make?" The gentle Company of Cursitours began now to stirre, and looke about them; and hauing gathered together a Conuocation of Canting Caterpillars, as wel in the North parts at the Diuels arse apeake,[35] as in the South, they diligently enquired, and straight search was made, whether any had reuolted from that faithles fellowship. Herupon euery one gaue his verdict: some supposed that it might be some one that, hauing ventured to farre beyond wit and good taking heede, was fallen into the hands of the Magistrate, and carried to the trayning Cheates, where, in shew of a penitent heart, and remoarse of his good time ill spent, turned the cocke, and let out all: others thought it might be some spic-knaue that, hauing little to doe, tooke vpon him the habite and forme of an Hermite; and so, by dayly commercing and discoursing, learned in time the mysterie and knowlege of this ignoble profession: and others, because it smelt of a study, deemed it to be some of their owne companie, that had been at some free-schoole, and belike, because hee would be handsome against a good time, tooke pen and inke, and wrote of that subiect; thus, Tot homines, tot sententiæ, so many men, so many mindes. And all because the spightfull Poet would not set too his name. At last vp starts an old Cacodemicall Academicke with his frize bonnet, and giues them al to know, that this invectiue was set foorth, made, and printed Fortie yeeres agoe. And being then called, 'A caueat for Cursitors,' is now newly printed, and termed, 'The Bel-man of London,' made at first by one Master Harman, a Iustice of Peace in Kent, in Queene Marie's daies,—he being then about ten yeeres of age.' Sign. A. 2.
'They (the vagabonds) haue a language among themselues, composed of omnium gatherum; a glimering whereof, one of late daies hath endeuoured to manifest, as farre as his Authour is pleased to be an intelligencer. The substance whereof he leaueth for those that will dilate thereof; enough for him to haue the praise, other the paines, notwithstanding Harman's ghost continually clogging his conscience with Sic Vos non Vobis.'—Sign. C. 3 back.[36]
'Because the Bel-man entreateth any that is more rich in canting, to lend him better or more with variety, he will repay his loue double, I haue thought good, not only to shew his errour in some places in setting downe olde wordes vsed fortie yeeres agoe, before he was borne, for wordes that are vsed in these dayes (although he is bold to call me an vsurper (for so he doth in his last round), and not able to maintayne the title, but haue enlarged his Dictionary (or Master Harmon's) with such wordes as I thinke hee neuer heard of (and yet in vse too); but not out of vaine glorie, as his ambition is, but, indeede, as an experienced souldier that hath deerely paid for it: and therefore it shall be honour good enough for him (if not too good) to come vp with the Reare (I doe but shoote your owne arrow back againe), and not to haue the leading of the Van as he meanes to doe, although small credite in the end will redound to eyther. You shall know the wordes not set in eyther his Dictionaries by this marke §: and for shewing the errour in his words, and true englishing of the same and other, this marke ¶ shall serue
"And thus haue I runne ouer the Canter's Dictionary; to speake more at large would aske more time then I haue allotted me; yet in this short time that I haue, I meane to sing song for song with the Belman, ere I wholly leaue him." [Here follow three Canting Songs.] Sign. E 1, back—E 4.
"And thus hath the Belman, through his pitifull ambition, caused me to write that I would not: And whereas he disclaims the name of Brotherhood, I here vtterly renounce him & his fellowship, as not desirous to be rosolued of anything he professeth on this subiect, knowing my selfe to be as fully instructed herein as euer he was."—Sign. F.
In the second Part of his Belman of London, namely, his Lanthorne and Candle-light, 1609, Dekker printed a Dictionary of Canting, which is only a reprint of Harman's (p. 82-4, below). A few extracts from this Lanthorne are subjoined:
Canting.
"This word canting seemes to bee deriued from the latine verbe canto, which signifies in English, to sing, or to make a sound with words,—that is to say, to speake. And very aptly may canting take his deriuation, a cantando, from singing, because, amongst these beggerly consorts that can play vpon no better instruments, the language of canting is a kind of musicke; and he that in such assemblies can cant best, is DEKKER'S LANTHORNE AND CANDLE-LIGHT.counted the best Musitian."—Dekker's Lanthorne and Candle-light, B. 4. back.
Specimen of "Canting rithmes."
Dekker's Lanthorne, &c., C. 1. back.
A specimen of "Canting prose," with translation, is given on the same page.
Dekker's dictionary of Canting, given in Lanthorne and Candle-light, is the same as that of Harman.
Ibid. C. 3. back.
Richard Head (says Mr Hotten), in his English Rogue, described in the Life of Meriton Latroon, a Witty Extravagant, 4 vols. 12mo., 1671-80, gave "a glossary of Cant words 'used by the Gipsies'; but it was only a reprint of what Decker had given sixty years before," and therefore merely taken from Harman too. 'The Bibliography of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Language' has been given so fully at the end of Mr Hotten's Slang Dictionary, that I excuse myself from pursuing the subject farther. I only add here Mr Wood's extracts from four of the treatises on this subject not noticed by Mr Hotten in the 1864 edition of his Dictionary, but contained (with others) in a most curious volume in the British Museum, labelled Practice of Robbers,—Press Mark 518. h. 2.,—as also some of the slang words in these little books not given by Harman[37]:
1. The Catterpillers of this Nation anatomized, in a brief yet notable Discovery of House-breakers, Pick-pockets, &c. Together with the Life of a penitent High-way-man, discovering the Mystery of that Infernal Society. To which is added, the Manner of Hectoring and trapanning, as it is acted in and about the City of London. London, Printed for M. H. at the Princes Armes, in Chancery-lane. 1659.
2. A Warning for Housekeepers; or, A discovery of all sorts of thieves and Robbers which go under theee titles, viz.—The Gilter, the Mill, the Glasier, Budg and Snudg, File-lifter, Tongue-padder, The private Theif. With Directions how to prevent them, Also an exact description of every one of their Practices. Written by one who was a Prisoner in Newgate. Printed for T. Newton, 1676.
Glasiers, thieves who enter houses, thro' windows, first remouing a pane of glass (p. 4).
The following is a Budg and Snudg song:—
On the last page of this short tract (which consists of eight pages) we are promised:
"In the next Part you shall have a fuller description."
3. Street Robberies consider'd; The reason of their being so frequent, with probable means to prevent 'em: To which is added three short Treatises—1. A Warning for Travellers; 2. Observations on House-breakers; 3. A Caveat for Shopkeepers. London, J. Roberts. [no date] Written by a converted Thief.
Shepherd is mentioned in this book as being a clever prison breaker (p. 6). There is a long list of slang words in this tract. The following are only a few of them:
"The King of the Night, as the Constables please to term themselves, should be a little more active in their employment; but all their business is to get to a watch house and guzzle, till their time of going home comes." (p. 60.)
"A small bell to Window Shutters would be of admirable use to prevent Housebreakers." (p. 70.)
4. A true discovery of the Conduct of Receivers and Thief-Takers, in and about the City of London, &c., &c. London, 1718.
This pamphlet is "design'd as preparatory to a larger Treatise, wherein shall be propos'd Methods to extirpate and suppress for the future such villanous Practices." It is by "Charles Hitchin, one of the Marshals of the City of London."
I now take leave of Harman, with a warm commendation of him to the reader.
The third piece in the present volume is a larky Sermon in praise of Thieves and Thievery, the title of which (p. 93, below) happened to catch my eye when I was turning over the Cotton Catalogue, and which was printed here, as well from its suiting the subject, as from a pleasant recollection of a gallop some 30 years ago in a four-horse coach across Harford-Bridge-Flat, where Parson Haben (or Hyberdyne), who is said to have preached the Sermon, was no doubt robbed. My respected friend Goody-goody declares the sermon to be 'dreadfully irreverent;' but one needn't mind him. An earlier copy than the Cotton one turned up among the Lansdowne MSS, and as it differed a good deal from the Cotton text, it has been printed opposite to that.
Of the fourth piece in this little volume, The Groundworke of Conny-catching, less its reprint from Harman, I have spoken above, at p. xiv. There was no good in printing the whole of it, as we should then have had Harman twice over.
The growth of the present Text was on this wise: Mr Viles suggested a reprint of Stace's reprint of Harman in 1573, after it had been read with the original, and collated with the earlier editions. The first edition I could not find, but ascertained, with some trouble, and through Mr W. C. Hazlitt, where the second and third editions were, and borrowed the 3rd of its ever-generous owner, Mr Henry Huth. Then Mr Hazlitt told me of Awdeley, which he thought was borrowed from Harman. However, Harman's own words soon settled that point; and Awdeley had to precede Harman. Then the real bagger from Harman, the Groundworke, had to be added, after the Parson's Sermon. Mr Viles read the proofs and revises of Harman with the original: Mr Wood and I have made the Index; and I, because Mr Viles is more desperately busy than myself, have written the Preface.
The extracts from Mr J. P. Collier must be taken for what they are worth. I have not had time to verify them; but assume them to be correct, and not ingeniously or unreasonably altered from their originals, like Mr Collier's print of Henslowe's Memorial, of which Dr MR PAYNE COLLIER'S WORK AND ALTERATIONS.Ingleby complains,[38] and like his notorious Alleyn letter. If some one only would follow Mr Collier through all his work—pending his hoped-for Retractations,—and assure us that the two pieces above-named, and the Perkins Folio, are the only things we need reject, such some-one would render a great service to all literary antiquarians, and enable them to do justice to the wonderful diligence, knowledge, and acumen, of the veteran pioneer in their path. Certainly, in most of the small finds which we workers at this Text thought we had made, we afterwards found we had been anticipated by Mr Collier's Registers of the Stationers' Company, or Bibliographical Catalogue, and that the facts were there rightly stated. PRINT THE STATIONERS' REGISTERS.That there is pure metal in Mr Collier's work, and a good deal of it, few will doubt; but the dross needs refining out. I hope that the first step in the process may be the printing of the whole of the Stationers' Registers from their start to 1700 at least, by the Camden Society,—within whose range this work well lies,—or by the new Harleian or some other Society. It ought not to be left to the 'Early English Text' to do some 20 years hence.
F. J. Furnivall.
29 Nov., 1869.
P.S. For a curious Ballad describing beggars' tricks in the 17th century, say about 1650, see the Roxburghe Collection, i. 42-3, and the Ballad Society's reprint, now in the press for 1869, i. 137-41, 'The cunning Northerne Beggar': 1. he shams lame; 2. he pretends to be a poor soldier; 3. a sailor; 4. cripple; 5. diseased; 6. festered all over, and face daubed with blood; 7. blind; 8. has had his house burnt.
Thomas Harman's Will (p. xiv, above) I couldn't find at Doctors' Commons when I searcht for it, though three John-Harman wills of his time turnd up.
The print of the Stationers' Registers calld for above, has since been produc't by Mr. Arber, to whose energy we are all so much indebted for such numbers of capital texts; and the book only needs an Index to be of real use. The entries on p. ii, vi, vii, above, are in Arber's Transcript, i. 157, 334, 345. (See too i. 348, 369.[39]) The Hunterian Club, Glasgow, reprinted, in 1874, S. Rowland's Martin Mark-all (p. xvi, above) from the text of 1610, in its handsome edition of all Rowlands's works.
As connected, more or less, with the Vagabonds of London, I add, opposite, a copy of the curious cut of the notorious Southwark brothel, 'Holland's Leaguer' in 1632, on which Mr. Rendle has commented in his "Bankside, Southwark," Harrison, Part II. p. ix-x, and the site of which is shown on the left of our first plan from Roque's Map, ib. p. 67*.
The Brothel is shown, says Mr. Ebsworth, (Amanda Ballads, 1880, p. 507*), fortified and sentried, as kept by a Mrs. Holland, before 1631. "The picture was frontispiece of a quarto pamphlet, 'Holland's Leaguer; or, an Historical Discourse of the Life and Actions of Donna Britanica Hollandia, the Arch Mistris of the wicked women of Eutopia: wherein is detected the notorious sinne of Pandarisme,' etc., sm. 4to. printed by A. M. for Richard Barnes, 1632....
"Holland's Leaguer claimed to be an island out of the ordinary jurisdiction. The portcullis, drawbridge, moat, and wicket for espial, as well as an armed bully or Pandar to quell disagreeable intruders, if by chance they got admittance without responsible introduction, all point to an organized system. There were also the garden-walks for sauntering and 'doing a spell of embroidery, or fine work,' i.e. flirtation; the summer-house that was proverbially famous FORETALK TO REPRINT OF 1880.or infamous for intrigues, and the river conveniently near for disposal of awkward visitors who might have met with misadventure.
"Shackerly Marmion's 'excellent comedy,' Holland's Leaguer, 1632, was reprinted in 1875, in William Paterson of Edinburgh's choice series, Dramatists of the Restoration. The fourth act gives an exposure of the Leaguers' garrison, where riot, disease, and robbery are unchecked. Thus Trimalchio says,
"Yet before long the visitors are shouting 'Murder! Murder!'
"The long-credit system did not suit at that establishment, where the health and lives of visitors were uninsured. The Proprietress had early declared the free list to be entirely suspended:
Roxburghe and Bagford Ballad Woodcuts of Beggars, &c.
Roxburghe and Bagford Ballad Woodcuts[1] Liber Vagatorum: Der Betler Orden: First printed about 1514. Its first section gives a special account of the several orders of the 'Fraternity of Vagabonds;' the 2nd, sundry notabilia relating to them; the 3rd consists of a 'Rotwelsche Vocabulary,' or 'Canting Dictionary.' See a long notice in the Wiemarisches Jahrbuch, vol. 10; 1856. Hotten's Slang Dictionary: Bibliography.
[3] as well and and as well not in the title of the 1575 edition.
[5] 'now at this seconde Impression,' p. 27; 'Whyle this second Impression was in printinge,' p. 87.
[6] Mr J. P. Collier (Bibliographical Catalogue, i. 365) has little doubt that the verses at the back of the title-page of Harman's Caveat were part of "a ballad intituled a description of the nature of a birchen broom" entered at Stationers' Hall to William Griffith, the first printer of the Caveat.
[7] Cp. Kente, p. 37, 43, 48, 61, 63, 66, 68, 77, &c. Moreover, the way in which he, like a Norfolk or Suffolk man, speaks of shires, points to a liver in a non -shire.
[10] "John Harman, Esquyer, one of the gentilmen hushers of the Chambre of our soverayn Lady the Quene, and the excellent Lady Dame Dorothye Gwydott, widow, late of the town of Southampton, married Dec. 21, 1567." (Extract from the register of the parish of Stratford Bow, given in p. 499, vol. iii. of Lysons's Environs of London.)
[11] Philipott, p. 108. Henry Harman bore for his arms—Argent, a chevron between 3 scalps sable.
[12] Of whose daughters, Mary married John, eldest son of Wm. Lovelace, of Hever in Kingsdown, in this county; and Elizabeth married John Lennard, Prothonotary, and afterwards Custos Brevium of the Common Pleas. See Chevening.
[13] See Robinson's Gavelkind, p. 300.
[14] She was of consanguinity to Abp. Chicheley. Stemm. Chich. No. 106. Thomas Harman had three daughters: Anne, who married Wm. Draper, of Erith, and lies buried there; Mary, who married Thomas Harrys; and Bridget, who was the wife of Henry Binneman. Ibid.
[15] In the first edition of Holinshed (1577) this chapter is the 5th in Book III. of Harrison's Description.
[16] Not in ed. 1577.
[17] thorow in ed. 1577.
[18] piteous in ed. 1577.
[19] lament in ed. 1577.
[20] The remainder of this paragraph is not in ed. 1577.
[21] Not in ed. 1577.
[23] The 1577 ed. inserts horrible.
[24] The 1577 ed. reads fifty.
[25] The 1577 ed. reads 22, which is evidently an error.
[26] For these words the 1577 ed. reads gather.
[27] The above list is taken from the titles of the chapters in Harman's Caueat.
[28] Not in the 1577 ed.
[29] These words are substituted for which they disfigure to begg withal in the 1577 ed.
[30] The 1577 ed. inserts bearwards.
[31] Not in 1577 ed.
[32] These three sentences are not in 1577 ed.
[33] Hazlitt's Hand Book, p. 241.
[34] Leader of the Choir. Captain of the Company.
[35] Where at this day the Rogues of the North part, once euerie three yeeres, assemble in the night, because they will not be seene and espied; being a place, to those that know it, verie fit for that purpos,—it being hollow, and made spacious vnder ground; at first, by estimation, halfe a mile in compasse; but it hath such turnings and roundings in it, that a man may easily be lost if hee enter not with a guide.
[36] Of the above passages, Dekker speaks in the following manner:—"There is an Vsurper, that of late hath taken vpon him the name of the Belman; but being not able to maintaine that title, hee doth now call himselfe the Bel-mans brother; his ambition is (rather out of vaine-glory then the true courage of an experienced Souldier) to haue the leading of the Van; but it shall be honor good enough for him (if not too good) to come vp with the Rere. You shall know him by his Habiliments, for (by the furniture he weares) he will be taken for a Beadle of Bridewell. It is thought he is rather a Newter then a friend to the cause: and therefore the Bel-man doth here openly protest that hee comes into the field as no fellow in armes with him."—O per se O (1612 edit.), sign. A. 2.
[37] We quote from four out of the five tracts contained in the volume. The title of the tract we do not quote is 'Hanging not Punishment enough,' etc., London, 1701.
[38] To obviate the possibility of mistake in the lection of this curious document, Mr E. W. Ashbee has, at my request, and by permission of the Governors of Dulwich College (where the paper is preserved), furnished me with an exact fac-simile of it, worked off on somewhat similar paper. By means of this fac-simile my readers may readily assure themselves that in no part of the memorial is Lodge called a "player;" indeed he is not called "Thos. Lodge," and it is only an inference, an unavoidable conclusion, that the Lodge here spoken of is Thomas Lodge, the dramatist. Mr Collier, however, professes to find that he is there called "Thos. Lodge," and that it [the Memorial] contains this remarkable grammatical inversion;
"and haveinge some knowledge and acquaintaunce of him as a player, requested me to be his baile,"
which is evidently intended to mean, as I had some knowledge and acquaintance of Lodge as a player, he requested me to be his baile. But in this place the original paper reads thus,
"and havinge of me some knowledge and acquaintaunce requested me to be his bayle,"
meaning, of course, Lodge, having some knowledge and acquaintance of me requested me to be his bail.
The interpolation of the five words needed to corroborate Mr Collier's explanation of the misquoted passage from Gosson, and the omission of two other words inconsistent with that interpolation, may be thought to exhibit some little ingenuity; it was, however, a feat which could have cost him no great pains. But the labour of recasting the orthography of the memorial must have been considerable; while it is difficult to imagine a rational motive to account for such labour being incurred. To expand the abbreviations and modernize the orthography might have been expedient, as it would have been easy. But, in the name of reason, what is the gain of writing wheare and theare for "where" and "there;" cleere, yeeld, and meerly for "clere," "yealde," and "merely;" verie, anie, laie, waie, paie, yssue, and pryvily, for "very," "any," "lay," "way," "pay," "issue," and "privylie;" sondrie, begon, and doen for "sundrie," "began," and "don;" and thintent, thaction, and thacceptaunce for "the intent," "the action," and "the acceptaunce"?—p. 14 of Dr C. M. Ingleby's 'Was Thomas Lodge an Actor? An Exposition touching the Social Status of the Playwright in the time of Queen Elizabeth.' Printed for the Author by R. Barrett and Sons, 13 Mark Lane, 1868. 2s. 6d.
[39] i. 270: A ballett intituled Tom Tell Truth, A.D. 1565; and i. 307, 'an interlude, the Cruell Detter by Wager,' licenst to Colwell in 1565-6.
As wel of ruflyng Vacabondes, 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.
¶ Wherunto also is adioyned
the .xxv. Orders of Knaues,
otherwyse called
a Quartern of Knaues.
Confirmed for euer by Cocke Lorell.
( * )
¶ The Vprightman speaketh.