Part 32

That is very good for vs.

Now we haue well bousd, let vs strike some chete.

Nowe we haue well dronke, let vs steale some thinge.

Yonder dwelleth a quyere cuffen it were beneshype to myll hym.

Yonder dwelleth a hoggeshe and choyrlyshe man it weare very well donne to robbe him.

Roge. Nowe, bynge we a waste to the hygh pad, the ruff-manes is by.

Naye, let vs go hence to the hygh waye, the wodes is at hande.

Man. So may we happen on the harmanes and cly the jarke, or to the quyer ken and skower quyaer cramprings and so to tryning on the chates.

So we maye chaunce to set in the stockes, eyther be whypped, eyther had to prison-house, and there be shackeled with bolttes and fetters, and then to hange on the gallowes.

A corde in thy mouth, the deuyll take thee.

Man. What! stowe you bene cofe and cut benar whydds; and byng we to some vyle to nyp a bong, so shall we haue lowre for the bousing ken and when we byng back to the deuseauye, we wyll fylche some duddes of the ruffemans, or myll the ken for a lagge of dudes.

What! holde your peace, good fellowe, and speake better wordes; and go we to London to cut a purse, then shal we haue money for the ale-house, and when we come backe agayne into the countrey, we wyll steale some lynnen clothes of one hedges, or robbe some house for a bucke of clothes."

I have been induced, from the curiosity and rarity of this tract, to extend my account of it farther, perhaps, than many of my readers may think reasonable, and shall, therefore, only add a specimen of Harman's poetry, with which the original terminates.

"--> Thus J conclude my bolde beggar's booke, That all estates most playnely maye see; As in a glasse well pollyshed to looke, Their double demeaner in eche degree; Their lyues, their language, their names as they be; That with this warning their myndes may be warmed To amende their mysdeedes, and so lyue vnharmed."

Another tract of the same description is noticed in Herbert's Ames (p. 885.) as printed so early as in 1565. A copy of the second edition in the Bodleian Library, possesses the following title:--"The Fraternitye of Uacabondes. As wel of ruflyng Vacabondes, as of beggerly, of women as of men, of gyrles as of boyes, with their proper names and qualities. With a description of the crafty company of Cousoners and Shifters. Whereunto also is adioyned the xxv orders of Knaues, otherwyse called a Quartern of Knaues. Confirmed for euer by Cocke Lorell, &c. Imprinted at London by Iohn Awdeley, dwellyng in little Britayne streete without Aldersgate. 1575." This, although much shorter than Harman's, contains nearly the same characters, and is therefore thus briefly dismissed. An account of it, drawn up by the editor of the present volume, may be found in Brydges' British Bibliographer, vol. ii. p. 12.

It may not be amiss to notice in this place, that a considerable part of The Belman of London, bringing to light the most notorious villanies that are now practised in the kingdom, &c. 4to. 1608, is derived from Harman's Caveat. Among the books bequeathed to the Bodleian, by Burton, (4to. G.8. Art. BS.) is a copy of the Belman, with the several passages so borrowed, marked in the hand-writing of the author of the Anatomy of Melancholy, who has also copied the canting dialogue just given, and added several notes of his own on the margin.

FOOTNOTES:

In the epistle to the reader, the author terms it "this second impression."

A ruffler seems to have been a bully as well as a beggar, he is thus described in the Fraternitye of Vacabondes; (see p. 228.) "A ruffeler goeth wyth a weapon to seeke seruice, saying he hath bene a seruitor in the wars, and beggeth for his reliefe. But his chiefest trade is to robbe poore way-faring men and market-women." In New Custome a morality, 1573, Creweltie, one of the characters, is termed a ruffler. See also Decker's Belman of London. Sign. C. iv.

"An upright man is one that goeth wyth the trunchion of a staffe, which staffe they cal a Flitchm[=a]. This man is of so much authority, that meeting with any of his profession, he may cal them to accompt, and comaund a share or snap vnto himselfe of al that they have gained by their trade in one moneth." Fraternitye of Vacabondes.

This worthy character approaches somewhat near to a shop-lifter. Decker tells us that "their apparele in which they walke is commonly freize jerkins and gallye slops." Belman. Sign. C. iv.

A rogue, says Burton, in his MS. notes to Decker's Belman of London, "is not so stoute and [hardy] as the vpright man."

A person whose parents were rogues.

"These be called also clapperdogens" and "go with patched clokes." Sign. C. iv.

A Frater and a Whipiacke, are persons who travel with a counterfeite license, the latter in the dress of a sailor. See Fraternitye, Belman, &c.

"An Abraham-man is he that walketh bare-armed, and bare-legged, and fayneth hymselfe mad, and caryeth a packe of wool, or a stycke with baken on it, or such lyke toy, and nameth himselfe Poore Tom." Fraternitye of Vacabondes.

A person who asks charity, and feigns sickness and disease.

One who pretends to be dumb. In Harman's time they were chiefly Welsh-men.