VII
Red shanks then I could not lack, [22]
Ruff peck still hung on my Back, [23]
Grannam ever fill'd my sack [24]
With lap and poplars held I tack. [25]
VIII
To thy bugher and thy skew, [26]
Filch and gybes I bid adieu, [27]
Though thy togeman was not new, [28]
In it the rogue to me was true.
[1: little man] [2: highway; beggeth] [3: body] [4: Notes] [5: Notes] [6: Notes] [7: Notes] [8: Notes] [9: fetters; wear] [10: stocks] [11: constables, look] [12: pockets; money] [13: clothes; general plunder] [14: magistrate] [15: country] [16: gallows] [17: Notes] [18: night] [19: hedge] [20: fire, duck] [21: goose] [22: turkey] [23: bacon] [24: corn] [25: any potable; porridge] [26: dog; wooden dish] [27: hook; counterfeit pass] [28: cloak]
THE BLACK PROCESSION [Notes] [1712]
[From The Triumph of Wit, by J. SHIRLEY:—"The twenty craftsmen, described by the notorious thief-taker Jonathan Wild">[.
Good people, give ear, whilst 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]