XXX "JAW-BREAKERS," OR HARD WORDS, USED AS CANT.

Turning our attention more to the Cant of modern times, in connexion with the old, we find that words have been drawn into the thieves' vocabulary from every conceivable source. Hard or infrequent words, vulgarly termed crack-jaw, or jaw-breakers, were very often used and considered as cant terms. And here it should be mentioned that at the present day the most inconsistent and far-fetched terms are often used for secret purposes, when they are known to be caviare to the million. It is really laughable to know that such words as, incongruous, insipid, interloper, intriguing, indecorum, forestall, equip, hush, grapple, &c., &c., were current cant words a century and a half ago; but such was the case, as any one may see in the Dictionary of Canting Words, at the end of Bacchus and Venus,* 1737. They are inserted not as jokes or squibs, but as selections from the veritable pocket dictionaries of the Jack Shepherds and Dick Turpins of the day. If they were safely used as unknown and cabalistic terms amongst the

*This is a curious volume and is worth from one to two guineas. The Canting Dictionary was afterwards reprinted, word for word, with the title of The Scoundrel's Dictionary, in 1751. It was originally published, without date, about the year 1710 by B. E., under the title of a Dictionary of the Canting Crew.

commonality, the fact would form a very curious illustration of the ignorance of our poor ancestors. One piece of information is conveyed to us, i. e., that the "Knights" or "Gentlemen of the road," using these polite words in those days of highwaymen, were really well educated men,-which heretofore has always been a hard point of belief, notwithstanding old novels, and operas.

Amongst those cant words which have either altered their meaning, or have become extinct, I may cite LADY, formerly the cant for "a very crooked, deformed, and ill-shapen woman; "* and HARMAN, "a pair of stocks, or a constable." The former is a pleasant piece of satire, whilst the latter indicates a singular method of revenge. HARMAN was the first author who specially wrote against English vagabonds, and for his trouble his name became synonymous with a pair of stocks, and a policeman of the olden time.

Apart from the Gipsey element, we find that Cant abounds in terms from foreign languages, and that it exhibits the growth of most recognised and completely formed tongues,—the gathering of words from foreign sources. The Anglo-Norman,

* Bacchus and Venus, 1737.

Xxxii VAGABONDS USE FOREIGN WORDS AS CANT.

and the Anglo-Saxon; the Scotch; the French; the Spanish; the Italian; and even the classic languages of ancient Italy and Greece, have contributed to its list of words,-besides the various provincial dialects of England. Indeed, as Mayhew remarks, English Cant seems to be formed on the same basis as the ARGOT of the French, and the ROTH-SPRÆC of the Germans,-partly metaphorical, and partly by the introduction of such corrupted foreign terms as are likely to be unknown to the society amid which the cant speakers exist. ARGOT is the London thieves' word for their secret language,—it is, of course, from the French, but that matters not so long as it is incomprehensible to the police and the mob. DOMINE, a parson, is from the Latin; and DON, a clever fellow, has been filched from the Spanish. DONNA AND FEELES, a woman and children, is an odd mixture of Spanish and French; whilst DUDDS, the vulgar term for clothes, has been pilfered from the Gaelic. FEELE, a daughter, from the French; and FROW, a girl or wife, from the German—are common tramps' terms. So are GENT, silver, from the French Argent; and VIAL, a country town, also from the French. GIP, a college servant, very

CLASSIC WORDS USED AS ENGLISH CANT. Xxxiii

appropriately comes from the Greek, Gups (a wolf); and HORRID-HORN, a fool, from the Erse; and GLOAK, a man, from the Scotch. As stated before, the Dictionary will supply numerous other instances.

"There are several Hebrew terms in our cant language, obtained, it would appear, from the intercourse of the thieves with the Jew fences (receivers of stolen goods); many of the cant terms, again, are Sanscrit, got from the Gipsies; many Latin, got by the beggars from the Catholic prayers before the Reformation; and many, again, Italian, got from the wandering musicians and others; indeed the showmen have but lately introduced a number of Italian phrases into their cant language."* Speaking of the

learned tongues, I may mention that precarious and abandoned as the vagabond's existence is, many persons of classical or refined education have from time to time joined the ranks, -occasionally from inclination, as in the popular instance of Bamfylde Moore Carew, but generally through indiscretion, and loss of character. This

*Mayhew's London Labour and London Poor, Vol. iii., No. 43, Oct. 4th, 1851.

Mayhew (vol. i., p. 217), speaks of a low lodging-house, "in

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will in some measure account for numerous classical and learned words figuring as cant terms in the vulgar dictionary.

In the early part of the last century, when highwaymen, from all accounts, were so plentiful, a great many new words were added to the canting vocabulary, whilst several old terms fell into disuse. CANT, for instance, as applied to thieves' talk, was supplanted by the word FLASH.

A singular feature, however, in vulgar language, is the retention and the revival of sterling old English words, long since laid up in ancient manuscripts, or the subject of dispute among learned antiquaries. Disraeli somewhere says "the purest source of neology, is in the revival of old words."

"Words that wise Bacon or brave Rawleigh spake," and Dr. Latham honours our subject by remarking that "the thieves of London are the conservators of Anglo-Saxonisms." Mayhew, too, in his interesting work, London Labour and London Poor, admits that many cant and slang phrases are

which there were at one time, five University men, three surgeons, and several sorts of broken down clerks." But old Harman's saying, that "a wylde Roge is he that is borne a roge," will perhaps explain this seeming anomaly.