OLD ENGLISH WORDS NOT FASHIONABLE NOW. XXXV

merely old English terms, which have become obsolete through the caprices of fashion." And the reader who looks into the dictionary of the vagabonds' lingo, will see at a glance that these gentlemen were quite correct, and that we are compelled to acknowledge the singular truth that a great many old words, once respectable, and in the mouths of kings and fine ladies, are now only so many signals for shrugs and shudders amongst exceedingly polite people. A Belgravian gentleman who had lost his watch or his pocket-handkerchief, would scarcely remark to his mamma that it had been BONED,-yet BONE, in old times, meant to steal amongst high and low. And a young lady living in the precincts of dingy, but aristocratic May-Fair, although in raptures with a Jenny Lind or a Ristori, hardly thinks of turning back in the box to inform Papa that they, Ristori or Lind, "made no BONES of it,"-yet BONES was a most respectable and well-to-do word, before it met with a change of circumstances. "A CRACK article," however first-rate, would, as far as speech is concerned, have greatly displeased Dr. Johnson and Mr. Walker,—yet both CRACK, in the sense of excellent, and CRACK UP, to boast or praise, were not

xxxvi OUR OLD AUTHORS VERY VULGAR PERSONS.

considered vulgarisms in the time of Henry VIII. DODGE, a cunning trick, is from the Anglo-Saxon; and ancient nobles used to "get each other's DANDER UP" before appealing to their swords,— quite FLABERGASTING (also a respectable old word) the half score of lookers-on with the thumps and cuts of their heavy weapons. GALLAVANTING, waiting upon the ladies, was as polite in expression as in action; whilst a clergyman at Paule's Crosse, thought nothing of bidding a noisy hearer to "hold his GAB," or "shut up his GOB." GADDING, roaming about in an idle and trapesing manner, was used in an old translation of the Bible; and "to do anything GINGERLY" was to do it with great care. Persons of modern tastes will be shocked to know that the great Lord Bacon spoke of the lower part of a man's face as his GILLS.

Shakespere, or as the French say, “the divine William," also used many words which are now counted as dreadfully vulgar. "CLEAN gone," in the sense of out of sight, or entirely away; "you took me all A-MORT," or confounded me; "it won't FADGE," or suit, are terms taken at random from the great dramatist's works. A London costermonger, or inhabitant of the streets, in

stead of saying "I'll make him yield," or "give in," in a fight or contest, would say "I'll make him BUCKLE under." Shakespere, in his Henry the Fourth (Part 2, Act i., Scene 1) has the word, and Mr. Halliwell, one of the greatest and most industrious of living antiquaries, informs us, that "the commentators do not supply another example." How strange, then, that the Bard of Avon, and the Cockney costermongers, should be jointpartners and sole proprietors of the vulgarism. If Shakespere was not a pugilist, he certainly anticipated the terms of the prize ring-or they were respectable words before the prize ring was thought of,—for he has PAY, to beat or thrash, and PEPPER, with a similar meaning; also FANCY, in the sense of pets and favourites,-pugilists are often termed the FANCY. The cant word PRIG, from the Saxon, priccan, to filch, is also Shakesperian; so indeed is PIECE, a contemptuous term for a young woman. Shakespere was not the only vulgar dramatist of his time. Ben Jonson, Beaumont, and Fletcher, Brome, and other play-writers occasionally put cant words into the mouths of their low characters, or employed old words which have since degenerated into vulgarisms. CRUSTY, poor tempered;

"two of a KIDNEY," two of a sort; LARK, a piece of fun; LUG, to pull; BUNG, to give or pass; PICKLE, a sad plight; FRUMP, to mock, are a few specimens casually picked from the works of the old histrionic writers.

One old English mode of canting, simple and effective when familiarized by practice, was the inserting a consonant betwixt each syllable; thus, taking g, "How do you do?" would be "Houg dog youg dog? The name given to this disagreeable nonsense, we are informed by Grose, was very properly Gibberish.

ACCOUNT

OF THE

HIEROGLYPHICS USED BY VAGABONDS.

ONE of the most singular chapters in a History of Vagabondism, would certainly be an account of the Hieroglyphic signs used by tramps and thieves. The reader may be startled to know that, in addition to a secret language, the wandering tribes of this country have private marks and symbolic signs, with which to score their successes, failures, and advice to succeeding beggars; in fact that the country is really dotted over with beggars' finger posts and guide stones. The assertion, however strange it may appear, is no fiction. The subject was not long since brought under the attention of the Government by Mr. Rawlinson.* "There is," he says in his report, "a sort of blackguards' literature, and the initiated understand each other by

* MR. RAWLINSON'S REPORT TO THE GENERAL BOARD OF HEALTH, Parish of Havant, Hampshire.