Musa Pedestris | Page 2

germania of Spain, not to mention other forms of the MUSA

PEDESTRIS had long held popular sway, but there was to all
appearance nothing to correspond with them on this side the silver
streak.
It must be confessed, however, that the field of English slang verse and
canting song, though not altogether barren, has yet small claim to the
idiomatic and plastic treatment that obtains in many an _Argotsong _
and Germania-romance; in truth, with a few notable
exceptions, there
is little in the present collection that can claim literary rank.
Those exceptions, however, are alone held to be ample justification for
such an anthology as that here presented. Moreover these "Rhymes and
Songs", gathered from up and down the years, exhibit, _en masse_,
points of interest to the student and scholar that, in isolation, were
either wanting altogether, or were buried and lost sight of midst a mass
of more (or less) valuable matter.
As regards the Vulgar Tongue itself--though exhaustive disquisition
obviously lies outside the scope of necessarily brief forewords--it may
be pointed out that its origin in England is confessedly obscure. Prior to
the second half of the 16th century, there was little trace of that flood of
unorthodox speech which, in this year of grace eighteen hundred and
ninety-six, requires six quarto double-columned volumes duly to
chronicle--verily a vast and motley crowd!
As to the distinction to be drawn between Cant and Slang it is
somewhat difficult to speak. Cant we know; its limits and place in the
world of philology are well defined. In Slang, however, we have a
veritable Proteus, ever shifting, and for the most part defying exact
definition and orderly derivation. Few, save scholars and such-like folk,
even distinguish between the two, though the line of demarcation is
sharply enough defined.
In the first place, Slang is universal, whilst Cant is restricted in usage to
certain classes of the community: thieves, vagrom men, and-- well,
their associates. One thing, indeed, both have in common; each are
derived from a correct normal use of language. There, however, all
similarity ends.

Slang boasts a quasi-respectability denied to Cant, though Cant is
frequently more enduring, its use continuing without variation of
meaning for many generations. With Slang this is the exception;
present in force to-day, it is either altogether forgotten to-morrow, or
has shaded off into some new meaning--a creation of chance and
circumstance. Both Cant and Slang, but Slang to a more determinate
degree, are mirrors in which those who look may see reflected a picture
of the age, with its failings, foibles, and idiosyncrasies. They reflect the
social life of the people, the mirror rarely being held to truth so
faithfully--hence the present interest, and may be future value, of these
songs and rhymes. For the rest the book will speak for itself.
MUSA PEDESTRIS
RHYMES OF THE CANTING CREW. [Notes]
[c. 1536]
[From "The Hye-way to the Spyttel-hons" by ROBERT COPLAND
(HAZLITT, Early Popular Poetry of England, iv.) ROBERT
COPLAND and the Porter of St. Bartholomew's Hospital loquitor].
Copland. Come none of these pedlers this way also,
With pak on bak
with their bousy speche [1]
Jagged and ragged with broken hose and
breche?
Porter. Inow, ynow; with bousy coue maimed nace,[2]
Teare the
patryng coue in the darkeman cace
Docked the dell for a coper meke;

His watch shall feng a prounces nob-chete,
Cyarum, by Salmon,
and thou shall pek my jere
In thy gan, for my watch it is nace gere

For the bene bouse my watch hath a coyn.
And thus they babble tyll
their thryft is thin
I wote not what with their pedlyng frenche.
[1 crapulous]
[2 Notes]
THE BEGGAR'S CURSE
[1608]
[From Lanthorne and Candlelight, by THOMAS DEKKER, ed.
GROSART (188 ), iii, 203:--"a canting song, wherein you may learn,

how this_ cursed _generation pray, or (to speake truth) curse such
officers as punish them"].
[Notes]
I
The Ruffin cly the nab of the Harmanbeck,
If we mawnd Pannam, lap,
or Ruff-peck,
Or poplars of yarum: he cuts, bing to the Ruffmans,

Or els he sweares by the light-mans,
To put our stamps in the
Harmans,
The ruffian cly the ghost of the Harmanbeck
If we heaue
a booth we cly the lerk.
[The devil take the Constable's head!
If we beg bread, drink, bacon,

Or milk porridge, he says: "be off to the hedges"
Or swears, in the
morning
To clap our feet in the stocks.
The devil take the
Constable's ghost
If we rob a house we are flogged.]
II
If we niggle, or mill a bowzing Ken,
Or nip a boung that has but a
win,
Or dup the giger of a Gentry cores ken,
To the quier cuffing
we bing;
And then to the quier Ken, to scowre the Cramp-ring,
And
then to the Trin'de on the chates, in the light-mans,
The Bube &.
Ruffian cly the Harmanbeck & harmans.
[If we fornicate, or thieve in an alehouse,
Rob a purse with only a
penny in it.
Or break