But perhaps we cannot do better than present to the reader at once an entire copy of the first Canting Dictionary ever compiled. As before mentioned, it was the work of one Thomas Harman, who lived in the days of Queen Elizabeth. Some writers have remarked that Decker[17] was the first to compile a dictionary of the vagabonds’ tongue; whilst Borrow[18] and Moore stated that Richard Head performed that service in his Life of an English Rogue, published in the year 1680. All these statements are equally incorrect, for the first attempt was made more than a century before the latter work was issued. The quaint spelling and old-fashioned phraseology are preserved, and the initiated will quickly recognise many vulgar street words as old acquaintances dressed in antique garb.[19]
Abraham-men be those that fayn themselves to have beene mad, and have bene kept either in Bethelem, or in some other pryson a good time.
Alybbeg, a bedde.
Askew, a cuppe.
Autem, a churche.
Autem mortes, married women as chaste as a cowe.
Baudye baskets bee women who goe with baskets and capcases on their armes, wherein they have laces, pinnes, nedles, whyte inkel, and round sylke gyrdels of all colours.
Beck [Beak, a magistrate], a constable.
Belly-chete, apron.
Bene, good. Benar, better.