Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.) A CURSORY HISTORY OF SWEARING. A CURSORY HISTORY OF SWEARING. BY JULIAN SHARMAN. "Ha! this fellow is worse than me; what, does he swear with pen and ink?"--_The Tatler_, No. 13. LONDON: J. C. NIMMO AND BAIN, 14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C. 1884. CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER I. At the Scufflers' Club--A stranger at the gates--A somnolent post-office--The best men in London--A sing-song--"Damn their eyes!"--"Qui s'excuse s'accuse"--The philosophy of swearing--A retrospect--"When that I was and a little tiny boy" 1 CHAPTER II. The son of discord--Origin of swearing--Decline of lying as an art--Growth of swearing as a science--The military oath-- Religious oath--John the Marshall--Fustian oaths--Legislation begins--"Moralite des Blasphemateurs"--George Fox and Margaret Fell--Oath of the King-Maker--Oath of the Bear-garden 22 CHAPTER III. "Odd's bodikins"--In Socrates' thinking-shop--The British shibboleth--Don Juan--Beaumarchais--Parny--Joan of Arc a satirist of swearing--La Hire--Corbleu et Cie.--"Jarnicoton"-- "[Greek: Ma ton]"--'Jurons de Cadillac'--Little King Goddam-- Sir John Harrington--'Amends for Ladies'--"Don't care a damn" 38 CHAPTER IV. Why has a dog a bad name?--Canine swearing--"Jarnichien!"--The cast of the die--Dog oath of Socrates--A nation of swearers-- Aristophanes--The Rhodian cabbage--"Mehercule"--'Ship of Fools'--Amenities of Roman swearing 60 CHAPTER V. Mediaeval swearing--The monastic teaching--Cleric and lay-- Robert Crowley--Mystery of the five wounds--"God's bread!"--In a Tuscan studio--Stephen Hawes--Thomas Becon--'Miroir du Monde'--'Handlyng Sinne'--Chaucer's oaths--Plantagenet swearing--"Ventre Saint Gris"--A royal scapegrace--"Bismillah!" 77 CHAPTER VI. The genius of antiquity--A study in dust and cobwebs--The why and the wherefore of swearing--A swearing _corps d'elite_-- "Swear me, Kate, like a lady"--The freemasonry of swearing-- Lord Thurlow--Sir Thomas Maitland--"By jingo!" 99 CHAPTER VII. A bank of swearing--Legislation at work--"The sweirer's and the Devill"--Aberdeen town records--Across the border--Before the footlights--'Magnetic Lady'--The wits--Colman the younger--A swearing bureau--Quarter Sessions--Statute of William and Mary--Convictions--A carnival of swearing 115 CHAPTER VIII.