Musa Pedestris | Page 8

a story I tell,
Of twenty black
tradesmen who were brought up in hell,
On purpose poor people to
rob of their due;
There's none shall be nooz'd if you find but one true.
[1]
The first was a coiner, that stampt in a mould;
The second a
voucher to put off his gold, [2]
Toure you well; hark you well, see [3]

Where they are rubb'd, [4]
Up to the nubbing cheat where they are
nubb'd. [5]
II
The third was a padder, that fell to decay, [6]
Who used for to plunder
upon the highway;
The fourth was a mill-ken to crack up a door, [7]

He'd venture to rob both the rich and the poor,
The fifth was a
glazier who when he creeps in, [8]
To pinch all the lurry he thinks it
no sin. [9]
Toure you well, etc.
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]
FRISKY MOLL'S SONG
[1724]
[By J. HARPER, and sung by Frisky Moll in JOHN THURMOND'S
_Harlequin Sheppard_ produced at Drury Lane Theatre].
I
From priggs that snaffle the prancers strong, [1]
To you of the Peter
Lay, [2]
I pray now listen a while to my song,
How my Boman he
kick'd away. [3]
II
He broke thro' all rubbs in the whitt, [4]
And chiv'd his darbies in
twain; [5]
But fileing of a rumbo ken, [6]
My Boman is snabbled

again. [7]
III
I Frisky Moll, with my rum coll, [8]
Wou'd Grub in a bowzing ken; [9]

But ere for the scran he had tipt the cole, [10]
The Harman he
came in. [11]
IV
A famble, a tattle, and two popps, [12]
Had my Boman when he was
ta'en;
But had he not bouz'd in the diddle shops, [13]
He'd still been
in Drury-Lane.
[1: steal horses]
[2: carriage thieves]
[3: fancy man or sweetheart]

[4: obstacles; Newgate]
[5: cut fetters]
[6: Breaking into a
pawn-broker's]
[7: imprisoned]
[8: good man]
[9: eat; ale-house]

[10: refreshments; paid]
[11: constable]
[12 ring; watch; pistols]

[13 gin-shops]
THE CANTER'S SERENADE [Notes]
[1725]
[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