Quand fut au bout de son voyage, Le gibet fut pret en un clin: Mourant il tourna de visage Vers la bonne ville de Dublin. Il dansa la carmagnole, Et mount comme fit Malbrouck; Puis nous enterrames le drole Au cimetiere de Donnybrook Que son ame y soit en repos!

Stanza V, line 3. Kilmainham, a gaol near Dublin.

Stanza VI, line 7. King William, the statute of William III erected on College Green in commemoration of the Battle of the Boyne. It was long the object of much contumely on the part of the Nationalists. It was blown to pieces in 1836, but was subsequently restored.

The Song of the Young Prig

Said to have been written by Little Arthur Chambers, the Prince of Prigs, who was one of the most expert thieves of his time. He began to steal when he was in petticoats, and died a short time before Jack Sheppard came into notice. Internal evidence, however, renders this attributed authorship very improbable.

Stanza I, line 1. Dyots Isle, i.e., Dyot St., St. Giles, afterwards called George St. Bloomsbury, was a well-known rookery where thieves and their associates congregated.

Stanza II, line 3. And I my reading learnt betime From studying pocket-books. "Pocket-book" = reader.

Stanza IV, line 1. To work capital = to commit a crime punishable with death. Previous to 1829 many offences, now thought comparatively trivial, were deemed to merit the extreme penalty of the law.

The Milling Match

Tom Cribb's Memorial to Congress: With a Preface, Notes, and Appendix. By One of the Fancy. London, Longmans & Co., 1819. There were several editions. Usually, with good reason, ascribed to Thomas Moore. It may be remarked that, though the Irish Anacreon's claim to fame rests avowedly on his more serious contributions to literature, he was, nevertheless, never so popular as when dealing with what, in the early part of the present century, was known as THE FANCY. Pugilism then took the place, in the popular mind, that football and cricket now occupy. Tom Cribb was born at Hanham in the parish of Bitton, Gloucestershire, in 1781, and coming to London at the age of thirteen followed the trade of a bell-hanger, then became a porter at the public wharves, and was afterwards a sailor. From the fact of his having worked as a coal porter he became known as the 'Black Diamond,' and under this appellation he fought his first public battle against George Maddox at Wood Green on 7 Jan. 1805, when after seventy-six rounds he was proclaimed the victor, and received much praise for his coolness and temper under very unfair treatment. In 1807 he was introduced to Captain Barclay, who, quickly perceiving his natural good qualities, took him in hand, and trained him under his own eye. He won the championship from Bob Gregson in 1808 but in 1809 he was beaten by Jem Belcher. He subsequently regained the belt. After an unsuccessful venture as a coal merchant at Hungerford Wharf, London, he underwent the usual metamorphosis from a pugilist to a publican, and took the Golden Lion in Southwark; but finding this position too far eastward for his aristocratic patrons he removed to the King's Arms at the corner of Duke Street and King Street, St. James's, and subsequently, in 1828, to the Union Arms, 26 Panton Street, Haymarket. On 24 Jan. 1821 it was decided that Cribb, having held the championship for nearly ten years without receiving a challenge, ought not to be expected to fight any more, and was to be permitted to hold the title of champion for the remainder of his life. On the day of the coronation of George IV, Cribb, dressed as a page, was among the prizefighters engaged to guard the entrance to Westminster Hall. His declining years were disturbed by domestic troubles and severe pecuniary losses, and in 1839 he was obliged to give up the Union Arms to his creditors. He died in the house of his son, a baker in the High Street, Woolwich, on 11 May 1848, aged 67, and was buried in Woolwich churchyard, where, in 1851, a monument representing a lion grieving over the ashes of a hero was erected to his memory. As a professor of his art he was matchless, and in his observance of fair play he was never excelled; he bore a character of unimpeachable integrity and unquestionable humanity.

Ya Hip, My Hearties!

Stanza III, line 8. Houyhnhnms. A race of horses endowed with human reason, and bearing rule over the race of man—a reference to Dean Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726).

Sonnets For The Fancy

Pierce Egan, the author of the adventures of Tom and Jerry was born about 1772 and died in 1849. He had won his spurs as a sporting reporter by 1812, and for eleven years was recognised as one of the smartest of the epigrammatists, song-writers, and wits of the time. Boxiana, a monthly serial, was commenced in 1818. It consisted of 'Sketches of Modern Pugilism', giving memoirs and portraits of all the most celebrated pugilists, contemporary and antecedent, with full reports of their respective prize-fights, victories, and defeats, told with so much spirited humour, yet with such close attention to accuracy, that the work holds a unique position. It was continued in several volumes, with copperplates, to 1824. At this date, having seen that Londoners read with avidity his accounts of country sports and pastimes, he conceived the idea of a similar description of the amusements pursued by sporting men in town. Accordingly he announced the publication of Life in London in shilling numbers, monthly, and secured the aid of George Cruikshank, and his brother, Isaac Robert Cruikshank, to draw and engrave the illustrations in aquatint, to be coloured by hand. George IV had caused Egan to be presented at court, and at once accepted the dedication of the forthcoming work. This was the more generous on the king's part because he must have known himself to have been often satirised and caricatured mercilessly in the Green Bag literature by G. Cruikshank, the intended illustrator. On 15 July 1821 appeared the first number of Life in London; or, 'The Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn, Esq., and his elegant friend, Corinthian Jem, accompanied by Bob Logic, the Oxonian, in their Rambles and Sprees through the Metropolis.' The success was instantaneous and unprecedented. It took both town and country by storm. So great was the demand for copies, increasing with the publication of each successive number, month by month, that the colourists could not keep pace with the printers. The alternate scenes of high life and low life, the contrasted characters, and revelations of misery side by side with prodigal waste and folly, attracted attention, while the vivacity of dialogue and description never flagged.

Stanza III, line 10. New Drop. The extreme penalty of the law, long carried out at Tyburn (near the Marble Arch corner of Hyde Park), was ultimately transferred to Newgate. The lament for "Tyburn's merry roam" was, without doubt, heart-felt and characteristic. Executions were then one of the best of all good excuses for a picnic and jollification. Yet the change of scene to Newgate does not appear to have detracted much from these functions as shows. "Newgate to-day," says a recent writer in The Daily Mail, is little wanted, and all but vacant, as a general rule. In former days enormous crowds were herded together indiscriminately—young and old, innocent and guilty, men, women, and children, the heinous offender, and the neophyte in crime. The worst part of the prison was the "Press Yard," the place then allotted to convicts cast for death. There were as many as sixty or seventy sometimes within these narrow limits, and most were kept six months and more thus hovering between a wretched existence and a shameful death. Men in momentary expectation of being hanged rubbed shoulders with others still hoping for reprieve. If the first were seriously inclined, they were quite debarred from private religious meditation, but consorted, perforce, with reckless ruffians, who played leap-frog, and swore and drank continually. Infants of tender years were among the condemned; lunatics, too, raged furiously through the Press Yard, and were a constant annoyance and danger to all. The "condemned sermon" in the prison chapel drew a crowd of fashionable folk, to stare at those who were to die, packed together in a long pew hung with black, and on a table in front was placed an open coffin. Outside, in the Old Bailey, on the days of execution, the awful scenes nearly baffle description. Thousands collected to gloat over the dying struggles of the criminals, and fought and roared and trampled each other to death in their horrible eagerness, so that hundreds were wounded or killed. Ten or a dozen were sometimes hanged in a row, men and women side by side.

The True Bottomed Boxer

The Universal Songster, or Museum of Mirth; forming the most complete collection of ancient and modern songs in the English language, with a classified Index... Embellished with a Frontispiece and wood cuts, designed by George Cruikshank etc. 3vols. London, 1825- 26. 8vo.

Stanza I, line 1. Moulsey-Hurst rig = a prize-fight: Moulsey- Hurst, near Hampton Court, was long a favorite venue for pugilistic encounters. Line 3. Fibbing a nob is most excellent gig = getting in a quick succession of blows on the head is good fun. Line 4. Kneading the dough = a good pummelling. Line 6. Belly-go-firsters = an initial blow, generally given in the stomach. Line 8. Measuring mugs for a chancery job = getting the head under the arm or 'in chancery'.

Stanza II, line 1. Flooring = downing (a man). Flushing = delivering a blow right on the mark, and straight from the shoulder. Line 5. Crossing = unfair fighting; shirking.

Stanza III, line 5. Victualling-office = the stomach. Line 6. Smeller and ogles = nose and eyes. Line 7. Bread-basket = stomach. Line 8. In twig = in form; ready.

Bobby And His Mary

[See ante for note on Universal Songster].

Stanza I, line 1. Dyot Street, see note page 222.

Stanza II, line 16. St. Pulchre's bell, the great bell of St. Sepulchre's Holborn, close to Newgate, always begins to toll a little before the hour of execution, under the bequest of Richard Dove, who directed that an exhortation should be made to "... prisoners that are within, Who for wickedness and sin are appointed to die, Give ear unto this passing bell."

Poor Luddy

Thomas John Dibdin (1771-1841), the author of this song, was an actor and dramatist—an illegitimate son of Charles Dibdin the elder. He claimed to have written nearly 2000 songs.

The Pickpocket's Chaunt

Eugene Francois Vidocq was a native of Arras, where his father was a baker. From early associations he fell into courses of excess which led to his flying from the paternal roof. After various, rapid, and unexampled events in the romance of real life, in which he was everything by turns and nothing long, he was liberated from prison, and became the principal and most active agent of police. He was made chief of the Police de Surete under Messrs. Delavau and Franchet, and continued in that capacity from the year 1810 till 1827, during which period he extirpated the most formidable gangs of ruffians to whom the excesses of the revolution and subsequent events had given full scope for daring robberies and iniquitous excesses. He settled down as a paper manufacturer at St. Mande near Paris.

Of Maginn (1793-1842) it may be said he was, without question, one of the most versatile writers of his time. He is, perhaps, best remembered in connection with the Noctes Ambrosianae, which first appeared in Blackwood, and with the idea of which Maginn is generally credited. He was also largely concerned with the inception of Fraser's. Maginn's English rendering of Vidocq's famous song first appeared in Blackwood for July 1829. For the benefit of the curious the original is appended. It will be seen that Maginn was very faithful to his copy.

En roulant de vergne en vergne [1] Pour apprendre a goupiner, [2] J'ai rencontre la mercandiere, [3] Lonfa malura dondaine, Qui du pivois solisait, [4] Lonfa malura donde.

J'ai rencontre la mercandiere Qui du pivois solisait; Je lui jaspine en bigorne; [5] Lonfa malura dondaine, Qu'as tu donc a morfiller? [6] Lonfa malura donde.

Je lui jaspine en bigorne; Qu'as tu donc a morfiller? J'ai du chenu pivois sans lance. [7] Lonfa malura dondaine, Et du larton savonne [8] Lonfa malura donde.

J'ai du chenu pivois sans lance Et du larton savonne, Une lourde, une tournante, [9] Lonfa malura dondaine, Et un pieu pour roupiller [10] Lonfa malura donde.

Une lourde, une tournante Et un pieu pour roupiller. J'enquille dans sa cambriole, [11] Lonfa malura dondaine, Esperant de l'entifler, [12] Lonfa malura donde.

J'enquille dans sa cambriole Esperant de l'entifler; Je rembroque au coin du rifle, [13] Lonfa malura dondaine, Un messiere qui pioncait, [14] Lonfa malura donde.

Je rembroque au coin du rifle Un messiere qui pioncait; J'ai sonde dans ses vallades, [15] Lonfa malura dondaine, Son carle j'ai pessigue, [16] Lonfa malura donde.

J'ai sonde dans ses vallades, Son carie j'ai pessigue, Son carle et sa tocquante, [17] Lonfa malura dondaine, Et ses attaches de ce, [18] Lonfa malura donde.

Son carle et sa tocquante, Et ses attaches de ce, Son coulant et sa montante, [19] Lonfa malura dondaine, Et son combre galuche Lonfa malura donde.

Son coulant et sa montante Et son combre galuche, [20] Son frusque, aussi sa lisette, [21] Lonfa malura dondaine, Et ses tirants brodanches, [22] Lonfa malura donde.

Son frasque, aussi sa lisette Et ses tirants brodanches. Crompe, crompe, mercandiere, [23] Lonfa malura dondaine, Car nous serions bequilles, [24] Lonfa malura donde.

Crompe, crompe, mercandiere, Car nous serions bequilles. Sur la placarde de vergne, [25] Lonfa malura dondaine, II nous faudrait gambiller, [26] Lonfa malura donde.

Sur la placarde de vergne Il nous faudrait gambiller, Allumes de toutes ces largues, [27] Lonfa malura dondaine, Et du trepe rassemble, [28] Lonfa malura donde.

Allumes de toutes ces largues Et du trepe rassemble; Et de ces charlots bons drilles, [29] Lonfa malura dondaine, Tous aboulant goupiner. [30] Lonfa malura donde.

[1: Vergne, town.] [2: Goupiner, to steal.] [3: Mercandiere, tradeswomen.] [4: Du pivois solisait, sold wine.] [5: Jaspine en bigorne, say in cant.] [6: Morfiller, to eat and drink.] [7: Chenu, good. Lance, water.] [8: Larton savonne, white bread.] [9: Lourde, door. Tournante, key.] [10: Pieu, bed. Roupiller, to sleep.] [11: J'enquille, I enter. Cambriole, room.] [12: Entifler, to marry.] [13: Rembroque, see. Rifle, fire.] [14: Mesisere man. Pioncait, as sleeping.] [15: Vallades, pockets.] [16: Carle, money. Pessigue, taken.] [17: Tocquante, watch.] [18: Attaches de ce, silver buckles.] [19: Coulant, chain. Montante, breeches.] [20: Combre galuche, laced hat.] [21: Frusque, coat. Lisette, waistcoat.] [22: Tirants brodanches, embroidered stockings.] [23: Footnote: Crompe, run away.] [24: Bequilles, hanged.] [25: Placarde de vergne, public place.] [26: Gambiller, to dance.] [27: Allumes, stared at. Largues, women.] [28: Trepe, crowd.] [29: Charlots bons drilles, jolly thieves.] [30: Aboulant, coming.]

Stanza XIII, line 5. Cotton, the ordinary at Newgate.

On the Prigging Lay

H. T. R., the English translator of Vidocq's Memoirs (4 vol., 1828-9), says of this and the following renderings from the French that they "with all their faults and all their errors, are to be added to the list of the translator's sins, who would apologise to the Muse did he but know which of the nine presides over Slang poetry." The original of "On the Prigging Lay" is as follows:—

Un jour a la Croix-Rouge Nous etions dix a douze (She interrupted herself with "Comme a l'instant meme.") Nous etions dix a douze Tous grinches de renom, [1] Nous attendions la sorgue [2] Voulant poisser des bogues [3] Pour faire du billon. [4] (bis)

Partage ou non partage Tout est a notre usage; N'epargnons le poitou [5] Poissons avec adresse [6] Messieres et gonzesses [7] Sans faire de regout. [8] (bis)

Dessus le pont au change Certain argent-de-change Se criblait au charron, [9] J'engantai sa toquante [10] Ses attaches brillantes [11] Avec ses billemonts. [12] (bis)

Quand douze plombes crossent, [13] Ses pegres s'en retournant [14] Au tapis de Montron [15] Montron ouvre ta lourde, [16] Si tu veux que j'aboule, [17] Et piausse en ton bocsin. [18] (bis)

Montron drogue a sa larque, [19] Bonnis-moi donc girofle [20] Qui sont ces pegres-la? [21] Des grinchisseurs de bogues, [22] Esquinteurs de boutoques, [23] Les connobres tu pas? [24] (bis)

Et vite ma culbute; [25] Quand je vois mon affure [26] Je suis toujours pare [27] Du plus grand coeur du monde Je vais a la profonde [28] Pour vous donner du frais, (bis)

Mais deja la patrarque, [29] Au clair de la moucharde, [30] Nous reluge de loin. [31] L'aventure est etrange, C'etait l'argent-de-change, Que suivait les roussins. [32] (bis)

A des fois l'on rigole [33] Ou bien l'on pavillonne [34] Qu'on devrait lansquiner [35] Raille, griviers, et cognes [36] Nous ont pour la cigogne [37] Tretons marrons paumes. [38] (bis)

[1: Thieves] [2: Night] [3: Watches] [4: Money] [5: Let us be cautious] [6: Let us rob] [7: citizen and wife] [8: Awaken suspicion] [9: Cried "Thief."] [10: I took his watch.] [11: His diamond buckles] [12: His bank notes] [13: Twelve oclock strikes.] [14: The thieves] [15: At the cabinet] [16: Your door] [17: Give money] [18: Sleep at your house] [19: Asks his wife] [20: Says my love] [21: These thieves] [22: Watch stealers] [23: Burglers] [24: Do you not know them?] [25: Breeches] [26: Profit] [27: Ready] [28: Cellar] [29: Patrol] [30: The moon] [31: Look at us.] [32: Spies] [33: Laughs] [34: Jokes] [35: To weep] [36: Exempt, soldiers and gendarmes.] [37: Palace of justice] [38: Taken in the act]

The Lag's Lament

See Note ante, "On the Prigging Lay", The original runs as follows:—

Air: L'Heureux Pilote.

Travaillant d'ordinaire, La sorgue dans Pantin, [1] Dans mainte et mainte affaire Faisant tres-bon choppin, [2] Ma gente cambriole, [3] Rendoublee de camelotte, [4] De la dalle au flaquet; [5] Je vivais sans disgrace, Sans regout ni morace, [6] Sans taff et sans regret. [7]

J'ai fait par comblance [8] Giroude larguecape, [9] Soiffant picton sans lance, [10] Pivois non maquille, [11] Tirants, passe a la rousse, [12] Attaches de gratouse, [13] Combriot galuche. [14] Cheminant en bon drille, Un jour a la Courtille Je m'en etais engante. [15]

En faisant nos gambades, Un grand messiere franc, [16] Voulant faire parade, Serre un bogue d'orient. [17] Apres la gambriade, [18] Le filant sur l'estrade, [19] D'esbrouf je l'estourbis, [20] J'enflaque sa limace, [21] Son bogue, ses frusques, ses passes, [22] Je m'en fus au fourallis. [23]

Par contretemps, ma largue, Voulant se piquer d'honneur, Craignant que je la nargue Moi que n' suis pas taffeur, [24] Pour gonfler ses valades Encasque dans un rade [25] Sert des sigues a foison [26] On la crible a la grive, [27] Je m' la donne et m' esquive, [28] Elle est pommee maron. [29]

Le quart d'oeil lui jabotte [30] Mange sur tes nonneurs, [31] Lui tire une carotte Lui montant la couleur. [32] L'on vient, on me ligotte, [33] Adieu, ma cambriole, Mon beau pieu, mes dardants [34] Je monte a la cigogne, [35] On me gerbe a la grotte, [36] Au tap et pour douze ans. [37]

Ma largue n' sera plus gironde, Je serais vioc aussi; [38] Faudra pour plaire au monde, Clinquant, frusque, maquis. [39] Tout passe dans la tigne, [40] Et quoiqu'on en juspine. [41] C'est un f— flanchet, [42] Douze longes de tirade, [43] Pour un rigolade, [44] Pour un moment d'attrait.

[1: Evening in Paris.] [2: A good booty.] [3: Chamber.] [4: Full of goods.] [5: Money in the pocket.] [6: Without fear or uneasiness.] [7: Without care.] [8: An increase.] [9: A handsome mistress.] [10: Drinking wine without water.] [11: Unadulterated wine.] [12: Stockings.] [13: Lace.] [14: Laced hat.] [15: Clad] [16: Citizen] [17: A gold watch] [18: Dance] [19: Following him in the boulevard.] [20: I stun him.] [21: I take off his shirt.] [22: I steal his watch, clothes and shoes.] [23: The receiving house.] [24: Coward] [25: Enters a shop.] [26: Steals money.] [27: They call for the guard.] [28: I fly] [29: Taken in the fact.] [30: The commissary questions him.] [31: Denounces his accomplices.] [32: Tell a falsehood.] [33: They tie me.] [34: My fine bed, my loves.] [35: The dock.] [36: They condemn me to the galleys.] [37: To exposure.] [38: Old.] [39: Rouge.] [40: In this world.] [41: Whatever people say.] [42: Lot.] [43: Twelve years of fetters.] [44: Fool.]

Stanza II, line 2. So gay, so nutty and so knowing—See Don Juan, Canto XI, stanza ...

Stanza VI, line i. Sir Richard Birnie the chief magistrate at Bow St.

"Nix My Doll, Pals, Fake Away"

Ainsworth in his preface to Rookwood makes the following remarks on this and the three following songs:—"As I have casually alluded to the flash song of Jerry Juniper, I may be allowed to make a few observations upon this branch of versification. It is somewhat curious with a dialect so racy, idiomatic, and plastic as our own cant, that its metrical capabilities should have been so little essayed. The French have numerous chansons d'argot, ranging from the time of Charles Bourdigne and Villon down to that of Vidocq and Victor Hugo, the last of whom has enlivened the horrors of his 'Dernier Jour d'un Condamne" by a festive song of this class. The Spaniards possess a large collection of Romances de Germania, by various authors, amongst whom Quevedo holds a distinguished place. We on the contrary, have scarcely any slang songs of merit. This barreness is not attributable to the poverty of the soil, but to the want of due cultivation. Materials are at hand in abundance, but there have been few operators. Dekker, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Ben Jonson, have all dealt largely in this jargon, but not lyrically; and one of the earliest and best specimens of a canting-song occurs in Brome's 'Jovial Crew;' and in the 'Adventures of Bamfylde Moore Carew' there is a solitary ode addressed by the mendicant fraternity to their newly-elected monarch; but it has little humour, and can scarcely be called a genuine canting-song. This ode brings us down to our own time; to the effusions of the illustrious Pierce Egan; to Tom Moore's Flights of 'Fancy;' to John Jackson's famous chant, 'On the High Toby Spice flash the Muzzle,' cited by Lord Byron in a note to 'Don Juan;' and to the glorious Irish ballad, worth them all put together, entitled 'The Night before Larry was stretched.' This is attributed to the late Dean Burrowes, of Cork. [See Note, p. 220 Ed.]. It is worthy of note, that almost all modern aspirants to the graces of the Musa Pedestris are Irishmen. Of all rhymesters of the 'Road,' however, Dean Burrowes is, as yet, most fully entitled to the laurel. Larry is quite 'the potato!'

"I venture to affirm that I have done something more than has been accomplished by my predecessors, or contemporaries, with the significant language under consideration. I have written a purely flash song; of which the great and peculiar merit consists in its being utterly incomprehensible to the uninformed understanding, while its meaning must be perfectly clear and perspicuous to the practised patterer of Romany, or Pedler's French. I have, moreover, been the first to introduce and naturalize amongst us a measure which, though common enough in the Argotic minstrelsy of France, has been hitherto utterly unknown to our pedestrian poetry." How mistaken Ainsworth was in his claim, thus ambiguously preferred, the present volume shows. Some years after the song alluded to, better known under the title of 'Nix my dolly, pals,—fake away!' sprang into extra-ordinary popularity, being set to music by Rodwell, and chanted by glorious Paul Bedford and clever little Mrs. Keeley.

The Game Of High Toby

and

The Double Cross

See note to "Nix my Doll, Pals, etc.," ante.

The House Breaker's Song

G. W. M. Reynolds followed closely on the heels of Dickens when the latter scored his great success in The Pickwick Papers. He was a most voluminous scribbler, but none of his productions are of high literary merit.

The Faking Boy To The Crap Is Gone

The Nutty Blowen

The Faker's New Toast

and

My Mother

"Bon Gualtier" was the joint nom-de-plume of W. E. Aytoun and Sir Theodore Martin. Between 1840 and 1844 they worked together in the production of The Bon Gualtier Ballads, which acquired such great popularity that thirteen large editions of them were called for between 1855 and 1877. They were also associated at this time in writing many prose magazine articles of a humorous character, as well as a series of translations of Goethe's ballads and minor poems, which, after appearing in Blackwood's Magazine, were some years afterwards (1858) collected and published in a volume. The four pieces above mentioned appeared as stated in Tails Edinburgh Magazine under the title of "Flowers of Hemp, or the Newgate Garland," and are parodies of well-known songs.

The High Pad's Frolic

and

The Dashy, Splashy.... Little Stringer

Leman Rede (1802-47) an author of numerous successful dramatic pieces, and a contributor to the weekly and monthly journals of the day, chiefly to the New Monthly and Bentley's. He was born in Hamburgh, his father a barrister.

Some of the best parts ever played by Liston, John Reeve, Charles Mathews, Keeley, and G. Wild were written by him.

The Bould Yeoman

The Bridle-Cull and his little Pop-Gun

Jack Flashman

Miss Dolly Trull

and

The By-Blow Of The Jug

See Note to "Sonnets for The Fancy" p. 225. Captain Macheath was one of Egan's latest, and by no means one of his best, productions. It is now very scarce.

The Cadger's Ball

John Labern, a once popular, but now forgotten music-hall artiste, and song-writer, issued several collections of the songs of the day. It is from one of these that "The Cadger's Ball" is taken.

"Dear Bill, This Stone-Jug"

The state of affairs described in this poem is now happily a thing of the past. Newgate, as a prison, has almost ceased to be. Only when the Courts are sitting do its functions commence, and then there is constant coming and going between the old city gaol and the real London prison of to-day, Holloway Castle.

The Leary Man

The Vulgar Tongue, by Ducarge Anglicus, is, as a glossary, of no account whatever; the only thing not pilfered from Brandon's Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime being this song. Where that came from deponent knoweth not.

A Hundred Stretches Hence

The Rogue's Lexicon, mainly reprinted from Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, is of permanent interest and value to the philologist and student for the many curious survivals of, and strange shades of meaning occurring in, slang words and colloquilisms after transplantation to the States. G. W. Matsell was for a time the chief of the New York police.

The Chickaleary Cove

Vance, a music-hall singer and composer in the sixties, made his first great hit in Jolly Dogs; or Slap-bang! here we are again. This was followed by The Chickaleary Cove: a classic in its way.

'Arry at a Political Picnic

The 'Arry Ballads' are too fresh in public memory to need extensive quotation. The example given is a fair sample of the series; which, taken as a whole, very cleverly "hit off" the idiosyncrasies and foibles of the London larrikin.

Stanza VIII, line 4. Walker = Be off!

"Rum Coves that Relieve us"

Heinrich Baumann, the author of Londonism en, an English-German glossary of cant and slang, to which "Rum Coves that Relieve us" forms the preface.

Villon's Good Night

Villon's Straight Tip

and

Culture in the Slums

William Ernest Henley, poet, critic, dramatist, and editor was born at Gloucester in 1849, and educated at the same city. In his early years (says Men of the Time) he suffered much from ill-health, and the first section of his Book of Verses (1888: 4th ed. 1893), In Hospital: Rhymes and Rhythms, was a record of experiences in the Old Infirmary, Edinburgh, in 1873-5. In 1875 he began writing for the London magazines, and in 1877 was one of the founders as well as the editor of London. In this journal much of his early verse appeared. He was afterwards appointed editor of The Magazine of Art, and in 1889 of The Scots, afterwards The National Observer. To these journals, as well as to The Athenaeum and Saturday Review he has contributed many critical articles, a selection of which was published in 1890 under the title of Views and Reviews. In collaboration with Robert Louis Stevenson he has published a volume of plays, one of which, Beau Austin, was produced at the Haymarket Theatre in 1892. His second volume of verses—The Song of the Sword—marks a new departure in style. He has edited a fine collection of verses, Lyra Heroica, and, with Mr. Charles Whibley, an anthology of English prose. In 1893 Mr. Henley received the honour of an L.L.D. degree of St. Andrew's university. At the present time he is also editing The New Review, a series of Tudor Translations, a new Byron, a new Burns, and collaborating with Mr. J. S. Farmer in Slang and its Analogues; an historical dictionary of slang.

"Villon's Straight Tip: Stanza I, line I. Screeve = provide (or work with) begging-letters. Line 2. Fake the broads = pack the cards. Fig a nag = play the coper with an old horse and a fig of ginger. Line 3. Knap a yack = steal a watch. Line 4. Pitch a snide = pass a false coin. Smash a rag = change a false note. Line 5. Duff = sell sham smugglings. Nose and lag = collect evidence for the police. Line 6. Get the straight = get the office, and back a winner. Line 7. Multy (expletive) = "bloody". Line 8. Booze and the blowens cop the lot: cf. "'Tis all to taverns and to lasses." (A. Lang).

Stanza II, line 1. Fiddle = swindle. Fence = deal in stolen goods. Mace = welsh. Mack = pimp. Line 2. Moskeneer = to pawn for more than the pledge is worth. Flash the drag = wear women's clothes for an improper purpose. Line 3. Dead-lurk a crib = house-break in church time. Do a crack—burgle with violence. Line 4. Pad with a slang = tramp with a show. Line 5. Mump and gag = beg and talk. Line 6. Tats = dice. Spot, (at billiards). Line 7. Stag = shilling.

Stanza III, line 2. Flash your flag = sport your apron. Line 4. Mug = make faces. Line 5. Nix = nothing. Line 6. Graft = trade. Line 7. Goblins = sovereigns. Stravag = go astray.

The Moral. Liner. /i>Up the spout and Charley Wag_ = expressions of dispersal. Line 2. _Wipes_ = handkerchiefs. _Tickers_ = watches. Line 3. _Squeezer_ = halter. _Scrag_ = neck.

"Tottie"

A Plank-Bed Ballad

and

The Rondeau of the Knock

G. R. Sims ("Dagonet") needs little introduction to present-day readers. Born in London in 1847, he was educated at Harwell College, and afterwards at Bonn. He joined the staff of Fun on the death of Tom Hood the younger in 1874, and The Weekly Despatch the same year. Since 1877 he has been a contributor to The Referee under the pseudonym of "Dagonet". A voluminous miscellaneous writer, dramatist, poet, and novelist, M. Sims shows yet no diminution of his versatility and power.

Wot Cher!

Our Little Nipper

and

The Coster's Serenade

Albert Chevalier, a "coster poet", music-hall artist, and musician of French extraction was born in Hammersmith. He is a careful, competent actor of minor parts, and sings his own little ditties extremely well.

APPENDIX

THERE are still one or two "waifs and strays" to be mentioned:—

I.

In Don Juan, canto XI, stanzas xvii—xix, Byron thus describes one of his dramatis personae.

Poor Tom was once a kiddy upon town, A thorough varmint and a real swell... Full flash, all fancy, until fairly diddled, His pockets first, and then his body riddled.

* * * * *

He from the world had cut off a great man Who in his time had made heroic bustle. Who in a row like Tom could lead the van, Booze in the ken, or in the spellken hustle? Who queer a flat? Who (spite of Bow Street's ban) On the high-toby-splice so flash the muzzle? Who on a lark, with Black-eyed Sal (his blowing) So prime, so swell, so nutty, and so knowing?

In a note Byron says, "The advance of science and of language has rendered it unnecessary to translate the above good and true English, spoken in its original purity by the select mobility and their patrons. The following is the stanza of a song which was very popular, at least in my early days:—"

("If there be any German so ignorant as to require a traduction, I refer him to my old friend and corporeal pastor and master John Jackson, Esq., Professor of Pugilism.")

On the high toby splice flash the muzzle In spite of each gallows old scout; If you at the spellken can't hustle You'll be hobbled in making a clout. Then your blowing will wax gallows haughty, When she hears of your scaly mistake She'll surely turn snitch for the forty— That her Jack may be regular weight.

John Jackson, to whom is attributed the slang song of which the foregoing stanza is a fragment was the son of a London builder. He was born in London on 28 Sept. 1769, and though he fought but thrice, was champion of England from 1795 to 1803, when he retired, and was succeeded by Belcher. After leaving the prize-ring, Jackson established a school at No. 13 Bond Street, where he gave instructions in the art of self-defence, and was largely patronised by the nobility of the day. At the coronation of George IV he was employed, with eighteen other prize-fighters dressed as pages, to guard the entrance to Westminster Abbey and Hall. He seems, according to the inscription on a mezzotint engraving by C. Turner, to have subsequently been landlord of the Sun and Punchbowl, Holborn, and of the Cock at Button. He died on 7 Oct. 1845 at No. 4 Lower Grosvenor Street West, London, in his seventy-seventh year, and was buried in Brompton Cemetery, where a colossal monument was erected by subscription to his memory. Byron, who was one of his pupils, had a great regard for him, and often walked and drove with him in public. It is related that, while the poet was at Cambridge, his tutor remonstrated with him on being seen in company so much beneath his rank, and that he replied that "Jackson's manners were infinitely superior to those of the fellows of the college whom I meet at 'the high table'" (J. W. Clark, Cambridge, 1890, p. 140). He twice alludes to his 'old friend and corporeal pastor and master' in his notes to his poems (Byron, Poetical Works, 1885-6, ii. 144, vi. 427), as well as in his 'Hints from Horace' (ib. i. 503):

And men unpractised in exchanging knocks Must go to Jackson ere they dare to box.

Moore, who accompanied Jackson to a prize-fight in December 1818, notes in his diary that Jackson's house was 'a very neat establishment for a boxer', and that the respect paid to him everywhere was 'highly comical' (Memoirs, ii. 233). A portrait of Jackson, from an original painting then in the possession of Sir Henry Smythe, bart., will be found in the first volume of Miles's 'Pugilistica' (opp. p. 89). There are two mezzotint engravings by C. Turner.

II.

IN Boucicault's Janet Pride (revival by Charles Warner at the Adelphi Theatre, London in the early eighties) was sung the following (here given from memory):

The Convict's Song.

THE FAREWELL. Farewell to old England the beautiful! Farewell to my old pals as well! Farewell to the famous Old Ba-i-ly (Whistle). Where I used for to cut sich a swell, Ri-chooral, ri-chooral, Oh!!!

THE [WERDHICK?] These seving long years I've been serving, And seving I've got for to stay, All for bashin' a bloke down our a-alley, (Whistle). And a' takin' his huxters away!

THE COMPLAINT. There's the Captain, wot is our Commanduer, There's the Bosun and all the ship's crew, There's the married as well as the single 'uns, (Whistle). Knows wot we pore convicks goes through.

THE [SUFFERING?] It ain't' cos they don't give us grub enough, It ain't' cos they don't give us clo'es: It's a-cos all we light-fingred gentery (Whistle). Goes about with a log on our toes.

THE PRAYER. Oh, had I the wings of a turtle-dove, Across the broad ocean I'd fly, Right into the arms of my Policy love (Whistle). And on her soft bosum I'd lie!

THE MORRELL. Now, all you young wi-counts and duchesses, Take warning by wot I've to say, And mind all your own wot you touches is, (Whistle). Or you'll jine us in Botinny Bay! Oh!!! Ri-chooral, ri-chooral, ri-addiday, Ri-chooral, ri-chooral, iday.

THE END