Chapter 2

Among roges and idle persons finallie, we find
to be comprised all proctors that go vp and downe with counterfeit
licences, coosiners, and such as gad about the countrie, vsing
vnlawfull games, practisers of physiognomie, and palmestrie, tellers
of fortunes, fensers, plaiers,[30] minstrels, jugglers, pedlers,
tinkers, pretensed[31] schollers, shipmen, prisoners gathering for
fees, and others, so oft as they be taken without sufficient licence.
From [32]‡‡among which companie our bearewards are not excepted, and
iust cause: for I haue read that they haue either voluntarilie, or
for want of power to master their sauage beasts, beene occasion of
the death and deuoration of manie children in sundrie countries by
which they haue passed, whose parents neuer knew what was become of
them. And for that cause there is _and_ haue beene manie sharpe lawes
made for bearwards in Germanie, wherof you may read in other. But to
our roges.‡‡ Each one also that harboreth or aideth them with meat or
monie, is taxed and compelled to fine with the queene’s maiestie for
euerie time that he dooth so succour them, as it {xiv} shall please
the iustices of peace to assigne, so that the taxation exceed not
twentie shillings, as I haue beene informed. And thus much of the
poore, _and_ such prouision as is appointed for them within the realme
of England.”

Among the users of Harman’s book, the chief and coolest was the
author of _The groundworke of Conny-catching_, 1592, who wrote a few
introductory pages, and then quietly reprinted almost all Harman’s
book with an ‘I leaue you now vnto those which by Maister Harman are
discouered’ (p. 103, below). By this time Harman was no doubt dead.—Who
will search for his Will in the Wills Office?—Though Samuel Rowlands
was alive, he did not show up this early appropriator of Harman’s work
as he did a later one. As a kind of Supplement to the _Caueat_, I
have added, as the 4th tract in the present volume, such parts of the
_Groundworke of Conny-catching_ as are not reprinted from Harman. The
_Groundworke_ has been attributed to Robert Greene, but on no evidence
(I believe) except Greene’s having written a book in three Parts on
Conny-catching, 1591–2, and ‘A Disputation betweene a Hee Conny-catcher
and a Shee Conny-catcher, whether a Theafe or a Whore is most hvrtfull
in Cousonage to the Common-wealth,’ 1592.[33] Hearne’s copy of the
_Groundworke_ is bound up in the 2nd vol. of Greene’s Works, among
George III.’s books in the British Museum, as if it really was Greene’s.

Another pilferer from Harman was Thomas Dekker, in his _Belman of
London_, 1608, of which three editions were published in the same year
(_Hazlitt_). But Samuel Rowlands found him out and showed him up. From
the fifth edition of the Belman, the earliest that our copier, Mr W. M.
Wood, could find in the British Museum, he has drawn up the following
account of the book:

_The Belman of London. Bringing to Light the most notorious Villanies
that are now practiced 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. {xv}

On the back of the title-page, after the table of contents, the eleven
following ‘secret villanies’ are described, severally, as

“Cheating Law.
Vincent’s Law.
Curbing Law.
Lifting Law.
Sacking Law.
Bernard’s Lawe.
The black Art.
Prigging Law.
High Law.
Frigging Law.
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
{xvi} Venturers, 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 _vsurper_; 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]._ {xvii}

Orderunt peccare boni virtutis amore,
Orderunt peccare mali formidine pœnæ.

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 liues, order of liuing, 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 spie-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
{xviii} 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
Harman’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

§ Abram, madde

§ He maunds Abram, he begs as a madde man

¶ Bung, is now vsed for a pocket, heretofore for a purse

§ Budge a beake, runne away

§ A Bite, secreta mulierum

§ Crackmans, the hedge

§ To Castell, to see or looke

§ A Roome Cuttle, a sword

§ A Cuttle bung, a knife to cut a purse

§ Chepemans, Cheape-side market

¶ Chates, the Gallowes: here he mistakes both the simple word, because
he so found it printed, not knowing the true originall thereof, and
also in the compound; as for _Chates_, it should be _Cheates_, which
word is vsed generally for things, as _Tip me that Cheate_, Giue me
that thing: so that if you will make a word for the Gallous, you must
put thereto this word _treyning_, which signifies {xix} hanging; and
so _treyning cheate_ is as much to say, hanging things, or the Gallous,
and not _Chates_.

§ A fflicke, a Theefe

§ Famblers, a paire of Gloues

§ Greenemans, the fields

§ Gilkes for the gigger, false keyes for the doore or picklockes

§ Gracemans, Gratious streete market

§ Iockam, a man’s yard

§ Ian, a purse

§ Iere, a turd

§ Lugges, eares

§ Loges, a passe or warrant

§ A Feager of Loges, one that beggeth with false passes or counterfeit
writings

§ Numans, Newgate Market

¶ Nigling, company keeping with a woman: this word is not vsed now, but
_wapping_, and thereof comes the name _wapping morts_, whoores.

§ To plant, to hide

¶ Smellar, a garden; not smelling cheate, for that’s a Nosegay

§ Spreader, butter

§ Whittington, Newgate.

“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_ {xx} best, is counted the best
Musitian.”—_Dekker’s Lanthorne and Candle-light_, B. 4. back.

_Specimen of “Canting rithmes.”_

“Enough—with bowsy Coue maund Nace,
Tour the Patring Coue in the Darkeman Case,
Docked the Dell, for a Coper meke
His wach shall feng a Prounces Nab-chete,
Cyarum, by Salmon, and thou shalt pek my Iere
In thy Gan, for my watch it is nace gere,
For the bene bowse my watch hath a win, &c.”
_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.

“A Canting Song.

The Ruffin cly the nab of the Harman beck,
If we mawn’d Pannam, lap or Ruff-peck,
Or poplars of yarum: he cuts, bing to the Ruffmans,
Or els he sweares by the light-mans,
To put our stamps in the Harmans,
The ruffian cly the ghost of the Harman beck,
If we heaue a booth we cly the Ierke.
If we niggle, or mill a bowsing Ken
Or nip a boung that has but a win
Or dup the giger of a Gentry cofe’s ken,
To the quier cuffing we bing,
And then to the quier Ken, to scowre the Cramp ring,
And then to the Trin’de on the chates, in the lightmans
The Bube _and_ Ruffian cly the Harman beck _and_ harmans

Thus Englished.

The Diuell take the Constable’s head,
If we beg Bacon, Butter-milke, or bread,
Or Pottage, to the hedge he bids vs hie
Or sweares (by this light) i’ th’ stocks we shall lie.
The Deuill haunt the Constable’s ghoast
If we rob but a Booth, we are whip’d at a poast.
If an ale-house we rob, or be tane with a whore,
Or cut a purse that has inst a penny, and no more,
Or come but stealing in at a Gentleman’s dore
To the Iustice straight we goe,
And then to the Iayle to be shakled: And so {xxi}
To be hang’d on the gallowes i’ th’ day time: the pox
And the Deuill take the Constable and his stocks.”
_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.

Ken = miller, house-breaker
lowre, or mint = wealth or money
Gigers jacked = locked doors
Tilers, or Cloyers, equivalent to shoplifters
Joseph, a cloak
Bung-nibber, or Cutpurse = a pickpocket.

――――

2. _A Warning for Housekeepers; or, A discovery of all sorts of
thieves and Robbers which go under these 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). {xxii}

The following is a Budg and Snudg song:—

“The Budge it is a delicate trade,
And a delicate trade of fame;
For when that we have bit the bloe,
We carry away the game:
But if the cully nap us,
And the lurres from us take,
O then they rub us to the whitt,
And it is hardly worth a make.
But when that we come to the whitt
Our Darbies to behold,
And for to take our penitency,
And boose the water cold.
But when that we come out agen,
As we walk along the street,
We bite the Culley of his cole,
But we are rubbed unto the whitt.
And when that we come to the whitt,
For garnish they do cry,
Mary, faugh, you son of a wh――
Ye shall have it by and by.
But when that we come to Tyburn,
For going upon the budge,
There stands Jack Catch, that son of a w――
That owes us all a grudge
And when that he hath noosed us
And our friends tips him no cole
O then he throws us in the cart
And tumbles us into the hole.”—(pp. 5, 6.)

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:

Abram, Naked
Betty, a Picklock
Bubble-Buff, Bailiff
Bube, Pox
Chive, a Knife
Clapper dudgeon, a beggar born
Collar the Cole, Lay hold on the money {xxiii}
Cull, a silly fellow
Dads, an old man
Darbies, Iron
Diddle, Geneva
Earnest, share
Elf, little
Fencer, receiver of stolen goods
Fib, to beat
Fog, smoke
Gage, Exciseman
Gilt, a Picklock
Grub, Provender
Hic, booby
Hog, a shilling
Hum, strong
Jem, Ring
Jet, Lawyer
Kick, Sixpence
Kin, a thief
Kit, Dancing-master
Lap, Spoon-meat
Latch, let in
Leake, Welshman
Leap, all safe
Mauks, a whore
Mill, to beat
Mish, a smock
Mundungus, sad stuff
Nan, a maid of the house
Nap, an arrest
Nimming, stealing
Oss Chives, Bone-handled knives
Otter, a sailor
Peter, Portmantua
Plant the Whids, take care what you say
Popps, Pistols
Rubbs, hard shifts
Rumbo Ken, Pawn-brokers
Rum Mort, fine Woman
Smable, taken
Smeer, a painter
Snafflers, Highwaymen
Snic, to cut
Tattle, watch
Tic, trust
Tip, give
Tit, a horse
Tom Pat, a parson
Tout, take heed
Tripe, the belly
Web, cloth
Wobble, to boil
Yam, to eat
Yelp, a crier
Yest, a day ago
Zad, crooked
Znees, Frost
Zouch, an ungenteel man
&c., a Bookseller

“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. {xxiv}

――――

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 H. 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
{xxv} Dr 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. {xxvi} 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._

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 acquaintnunce 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. 11 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 Elisabeth_.’ Printed for the
Author by R. Barrett and Sons, 13 Mark Lane, 1868. 2⁠_s._ 6⁠_d._]

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.

――――

NOTES.

p. vii. ix, p. 19, 20. _Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury, and her
parish._ The manor of Erith was granted to Elizabeth, Countess of
Shrewsbury, by Henry VIII. in the 36th year of his reign, A.D. 1544–5.
The Countess died in 1567, and was buried in the parish church of
Erith. “The manor of Eryth becoming part of the royal revenue,
continued in the crown till K. Henry VIII. in his 36th year, granted
it in fee to Elizabeth, relict of George, Earl of Shrewsbury, by the
description of the _manor, of Eryth, alias Lysnes_, with all its
members and appurts., and also all that wood, called Somersden, lying
in Eryth, containing 30 acres; and a wood, called Ludwood, there,
containing 50 acres; and a wood, called Fridayes-hole, by estimation,
20 acres, to hold of the King _in capite_ by knight’s service.[39]
She was the second wife of George, Earl of {xxvii} Shrewsbury, Knight
of the Garter,[40] who died July 26, anno 33 K. Henry VIII.,[41] by
whom she had issue one son, John, who died young; and Anne, married
to Peter Compton, son and heir of Sir Wm. Compton, Knt., who died
in the 35th year of K. Henry VIII., under age, as will be mentioned
hereafter. Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury, in Easter Term, in
the 4th year of Q. Elizabeth, levied a fine of this manor, with the
passage over the Thames; and dying in the tenth year of that reign,
anno 1567,[42] lies buried under a sumptuous tomb, in this church.