Minor Queries Answered.
Abraham-Men.
—Although I cannot find it in your former volumes, nor in your Index, I think there was an inquiry in one of your past Numbers as to the meaning of the phrase "To sham Abraham."
If there has been any reply, will you be good enough to refer me to it? as it may explain the passage in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, that "every village almost will yield dummerers Abraham-men," &c. (Part I. sec. 2., vol. i. p. 360.)
W. W. E. T.
Warwick Square, Belgravia.
["To sham Abraham" is a cant expression, having reference to the practices of a class of vagabonds and cheats once common in this country. In Decker's English Villanies there are many curious particulars of the habits of this class of impostors. "She's all Abram," that is, quite naked. "What an Abram!" an exclamation for a ragged fellow. "An Abraham-man" was an impostor who personated a poor lunatic called Tom of Bedlam: one of this class is described by Shakspeare in his Lear, Act II. Sc. 3.:
"The basest and most poorest shape,
That every penury, in contempt of man,
Brought near to beast."