TO the second Volume of Bailey's Dictionary is annexed, A Collection of the Canting Words and Terms, both ancient and modern, used by Beggars, Gypsies, Cheats, Housebreakers, Shop-lifters, Foot-pads, High-waymen,' &c. by an examination whereof the Cant appears to be not only an established, but a systematical language. We thought it necessary to recur to it, not only to see whether there was an agreement between that collection and Theobald's explanations, but also to derive (as there appeared frequent opportunity) a clearer and stronger explication than that critick has given us. It should have been premised, that the explanation of the cant terms given in the edition of 1750, were collected by Mr. Seward from the marginal remarks of Mr. Theobald.

With respect to the propriety, or authority, with which either Theobald or Bailey explain the cant terms, or whence they derived their knowledge of them, we can give no information; but as none of those terms, printed by Mr. Seward, seem warranted by any derivation, and as similar terms, according to Bailey, have an apparent advantage in this respect, we have been induced to vary the spelling from the other editions, agreeable to that exhibited by Bailey. The Canters' cath has hitherto been printed in the following manner:

I crown thy nab with a gag of benhouse,
And stall thee by the salmon into the clows,
To mand on the pad, and strike all the cheats;
To mill from the ruffians, and commission and slates;
Twang dell's, i' the stiromel, and let the quire-cuffin,
And herman-becktrine, and trine to the ruffin.

In the first line, gag seems devoid of meaning, while gage (which Bailey tells us signifies a pot) conveys an idea of a vessel or measure; and bene (which seems derived from the Latin bene or the French bien) is more likely to have been used for good than ben. In the second, salamon (which Bailey renders, the beggars' sacrament, or oath) leaves the verse much smoother than salmon. In the fourth, the conjunction and (which is a modern interpolation) murders the poetry, and with it the sense; as ruffmans, and commission, and slates, seem to be three different classes of people, or three different articles of some kind, which were to be pillaged; instead of ruffmans meaning the hedges or bushes, from which the commission and slates (ì, e. shirt and sheets) were to be purloined. In the fifth, dell's appearing as a genitive case, and having a comma after it, the passage is totally inexplicable; and stiromel is not near so agreeable to the verse as strommel, which, says Bailey, means straw. In the sixth line, edit, 1750, we read, Herman-Becktrine, which totally unintelligible; prior to that edition, Herman Beck strine: We have no doubt but our Authors wrote, harmanbecks (constables, or beadles) trine (hang). The printer had thistakenly made s the initial letter of trine, instead of the final of harmanbeck.

Having thus mentioned such variations as we have made (in which we conceived ourselves warranted by derivation, or metre, and sometimes by both) we shall proceed to the explanation of the Cant Terms made use of in this excellent Comedy, Beggars' Bush; not assuming to ourselves any very great merit from the depth of our researches in the gully-hole of literature, and our proficiency in this most vulgar part of the vulgar tongue.

ABRAM-MAN, a beggar pretending to be mad. 7.

BACK OF BELLY-CHEATS, raiment, or food stolen. T.

BEEN-WHIDS, good words. T.

Bouze, drink. T.

BOUZING-KEN, ale-house. T

CACKLING-CHEATS, chickens. T.

CLAPPERDUDGEON, a beggar born and bred. T

CLOWES, rogues. T.

COMMISSION, a shirt. B.

COVE, a man, one not of the gang. T.

CRANKE, a genteel impostor, appearing in divers shapes. T.

DELLS, young wenches undebauched. T- -DELLS, young ripe wenches, who have not lost their virginity, which the Upright-Man (i. e. the vilest stoutest rogue in the pack) has a right to the enjoyment of; after which they are used in common by the whole fraternity. B. DOMMERER, pretending to have his tongue cut out. 7.- DOMERARS, or DROMMERARS, rogues, pretending to have had their tongues cut out, or to be born dumb and deaf, who artificially turn the tips of their tongues into their throats, and with a stick make thein bleed. B. DOXIES, strumpets. T.

FAMBLES, hands. T
FILCHED, stole T

B.

FILCHES, staves. TA FILCH, a staff, with hole through and a spike at the bottom, to pluck clothes from a hedge, or any thing out of a casement. FRATER, such as beg with sham patents, or briefs, for spitals, prisons, fires, inundations, &c. B.

FUMBUMBIS, to your guard and postures. T -Although Mr. Theobald has explained this word with those used by Prigg in the next line, we rather think fumbumbis a fancied watch-word, than a cant term.

GAGE OF BENE-BOWSE, a pot of strong liquor. B.

GRUNTING-CHEATS, pigs. T.

HARMANBECKS, beedles. B.

HUM, strong liquor. T.

JARKMAN, one who makes counterfeit licences, or passes., T.

KEN, a house. B.

LAG OF DUDDS, a buck of clothes; as, 'We'll cloy that lag of dudds:- Come, let us steal that buck of clothes.'

B.

PATRICO, strolling priests that marry under a hedge. T

-PATRICOVES, or PATER-COVES,

strolling priests, that marry under a hedge, without Gospel or Common-Prayer-Book: The couple standing on each side a dead beast, are bid to live together till death them does part; so shaking hands, the wedding is ended. B.

PIG, sixpence. T.

PRIGG'D THE PRANCERS, stole horses. T

-PRIGGERS OF PRANCERS, horse-stealers,

who carry a bridle in their pockets, and a small pad-saddle in their breeches. B. PROP, either to his own support, or else by abbreviation to his own property. T QUEERE-CUFFIN, justice of peace. B.

ROGERS, geese. T.

T.

RUFFMANS, hedges. T

RUFFIN, devil. T.

SALMON, oath. T

SLATES, sheets. T.

STALL, instal. T

-SALAMON, the beggars' sacrament or oath. B.

-STALLING, making or ordaining. B.

STRIKE ALL THE CHEATS, rob all you meet. T.

STROMMEL, hay. B.

TIBS OF THE BUTTERY, goslings. T Geese. B.-It has been suggested by one gentle

man, that EGGS are meant by this term; and by another, that it means RABBITS. TRINE, hang. T

TWANG DELLS, lie with maids. T

THE

HUMOROUS LIEUTENANT.

A TRAGI-COMEDY.

The Commendatory Verses by Gardiner, Hills, and Lovelace, ascribe this Play wholly to Fletcher; but as these panegyrists generally attribute to him only the pieces they mention, as if unassisted in any of them by Beaumont, we must not much rely on their testimony. The Humorous Lieutenant was first printed in the folio collection of 1647; and used, until a few years past, to be sometimes acted at the Theatre in Covent-Garden.

АСТ I.

The state.] i.e. The state-chair, or throne.