Musa Pedestris - Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes [1536 - 1896] Part 9

[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. SHIRLEY:--"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]