I find also, dated 1690, this curious vocabulary of thieves’ slang scribbled on the back of some particulars relating to the appointment of a new incumbent for Sevenoaks. Unfortunately half the alphabet is missing:
| Autem mort | a marryed woman |
| Abram | naked |
| abram-cour | a tatterdemalion |
| autem | a church |
| boughar | a cur |
| bouse | drink |
| bousing-ken | an ale-house |
| borde | a shilling |
| boung | a purse |
| bing | to goe |
| bing a wast | to goe away |
| bube | ye pox |
| buge | a dog |
| bleating-cheat | a sheep |
| billy-cheat | an apron |
| bite ye peter or Roger | steal ye portmantle |
| budge | one that steals cloaks |
| bulk and file | a pickpocket and his mate |
| cokir | a lyar |
| cuffin quire | a justice |
| crampings | bolts and shackles |
| chats | ye gallows |
| crackmans | hedges |
| calle togeman Joseph | a cloak |
| couch | to lye asleep |
| couch a hogshead | to goe to sleep |
| commission mish | a shirt |
| cackling-cheat | a chicken |
| cassan | cheese |
| crash | to kill |
| crashing-cheat | teeth |
| cloy | to steal |
| cut | to speak |
| cut bien whydds | to speak well |
| cut quire whydds | to speak evill |
| confeck | counterfeit |
| cly ye jerk | to be whipt |
| dimber | pretty |
| damber | rascall |
| drawers | stockings |
| duds | goods |
| deusea vile | ye country |
| dommerer | a madman |
| darkmans | night or even |
| dup | to enter |
| tip me my earnest | give me my part |
| filch | a staffe |
| ferme | a hole |
| fambles | hands |
| fambles cheats | rings and gloves |
| fib | to beat |
| flag | a groat |
| fogus | tobacco |
| fencing cully | one that receives stolne goods |
| glimmer | fire |
| glaziers | eyes |
| granna | corne |
| gentry more | a gallant wench |
| gun | lip |
| gage | a pot or pipe |
| grunting-cheat | a sucking pig |
| giger | a dore |
| gybe | a passe |
| glasier | one that goes in at windows |
| gilt | a picklock |
| harmanbeck | a constable |
| heave a book | to rob a house |
| half berd | sixpence |
| heartsease | 20 shillings |
| knapper of knappers | a sheep stealer |
| lightmans | morning or day |
| lib | to tumble |
| libben | an house |
| lage | water |
| libedge | a bed |
| lullabye-cheat | a child |
| lap | pottage |
| lucries | all manner of clothes |
| maunder | to beg |
| magery prater | an hen |
| muffling-cheat | a napkin |
| mumpers | gentile beggars[[10]] |
§ iv
In 1685 Charles II died, and with him departed that devil-may-care existence into which Lord Dorset had fitted so readily and so well. He was no favourite with the new King; for one thing he had addressed verses in this vein to Lady Dorchester, mistress of James II:
Tell me, Dorinda, why so gay,
Why such embroidery, fringe, and lace?
Can any dresses find a way
To stop th’ approaches of decay,
And mend a ruined face?
Wilt thou still sparkle in the box,