Heinrich Baumann, the author ofLondonism 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 (saysMen of the Time) he suffered much from ill-health, and the first section of hisBook 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 ofLondon. In this journal much of his early verse appeared. He was afterwards appointed editor ofThe Magazine of Art, and in 1889 ofThe Scots, afterwardsThe National Observer. To these journals, as well as toThe AthenaeumandSaturday Reviewhe has contributed many critical articles, a selection of which was published in 1890 under the title ofViews 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 editingThe New Review, a series ofTudor Translations, a newByron, a newBurns, and collaborating with Mr. J. S. Farmer inSlang 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 ofFunon the death of Tom Hood the younger in 1874, andThe Weekly Despatchthe same year. Since 1877 he has been a contributor toThe Refereeunder 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.
THERE are still one or two "waifs and strays" to be mentioned:—
InDon Juan, canto XI, stanzas xvii—xix, Byron thus describes one of hisdramatis personæ.
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 manWho 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 muzzleIn spite of each gallows old scout;If you at the spellken can't hustleYou'll be hobbled in making a clout.Then your blowing will wax gallows haughty,When she hears of your scaly mistakeShe'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 knocksMust 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.
IN Boucicault'sJanet 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.