III
The sixth is a file-cly that not one cully spares,[10]
The seventh a budge to track softly upstairs; [11]
The eighth is a bulk, that can bulk any hick, [12]
If the master be nabbed, then the bulk he is sick,
The ninth is an angler, to lift up a grate [13]
If he sees but the lurry his hooks he will bait.
Toure you well, etc.
IV
The tenth is a shop-lift that carries a Bob,
When he ranges the city, the shops for to rob.
The eleventh a bubber, much used of late;
Who goes to the ale house, and steals all their plate,
The twelfth is a beau-trap, if a cull he does meet
He nips all his cole, and turns him into the street.
Toure you well, etc.
V
The thirteenth a famble, false rings for to sell, [17]
When a mob, he has bit his cole he will tell;
The fourteenth a gamester, if he sees the cull sweet [18]
He presently drops down a cog in the street; [19]
The fifteenth a prancer, whose courage is small, [20]
If they catch him horse-coursing, he’s nooz’d once for all. [21]
Toure you well, etc.
VI
The sixteenth a sheep-napper, whose trade is so deep, [22]
If he’s caught in the corn, he’s marked for a sheep [23]
The seventeenth a dunaker, that stoutly makes vows, [24]
To go in the country and steal all the cows;
The eighteenth a kid-napper, who spirits young men,
Tho’ he tips them a pike, they oft nap him again.
Toure you well, etc.
VII
The nineteenth’s a prigger of cacklers who harms, [25]
The poor country higlers, and plunders the farms; [26]
He steals all their poultry, and thinks it no sin,
When into the hen-roost, in the night, he gets in;
The twentieth’s a thief-catcher, so we him call,
Who if he be nabb’d will be made pay for all.
Toure you well, etc.
[in Bacchus and Venus (1737) an additional stanza is given:—]
VIII
There’s many more craftsmen whom here I could name, [27]
Who use such-like trades, abandon’d of shame;
To the number of more than three-score on the whole,
Who endanger their body, and hazard their soul;
And yet; though good workmen, are seldom made free,
Till they ride in a cart, and be noozed on a tree.
Toure you well, hark you well, see where they are rubb’d,
Up to the nubbing cheat, where they are nubb’d.
[1: hung] [2: passer of base coin] [3: Look! be on your guard] [4: taken] [5: gallows: hung] [6: Tramp or foot-pad.] [7: housebreaker] [8: window thief] [9: valuables] [10: pickpocket; man or silly fop] [11: sneaking-thief] [12: accomplice who jostles whilst another robs: countryman] [13: thief who hooks goods from shop-windows] [14: public-house thief] [15: confidence-trick man; good-natured fool] [16: steals all his money] [17: Notes] [18: an easy dupe] [19: a lure] [20: horse-thief] [21: hung] [22: sheep-stealer] [23: as a duffer] [24: cattle-lifter] [25: poultry-thief] [26: bumpkins] [27: members of the Canting Crew]
The Canter’s Serenade [Notes]
[from The New Canting Dictionary:—“Sung early in the morning, at the barn doors where their doxies have reposed during the night”].
I
Ye morts and ye dells [1]
Come out of your cells,
And charm all the palliards about ye; [2]
Here birds of all feathers,
Through deep roads and all weathers,
Are gathered together to toute ye.
II
With faces of wallnut,
And bladder and smallgut,
We’re come scraping and singing to rouse ye;
Rise, shake off your straw,
And prepare you each maw [3]
To kiss, eat, and drink till you’re bouzy. [4]
[1: women; girls] [2: beggars [Notes]] [3: mouth] [4: drunk,]