Shakespere, or as the French say, “the divine William,” also used many words which are now counted as dreadfully vulgar. “CLEAN gone,” in the sense of out of sight, or entirely away; “you took me all A-MORT,” or confounded me; “it won’t FADGE,” or suit, are phrases taken at random from the great dramatist’s works. A London costermonger, or inhabitant of the streets, instead of saying “I’ll make him yield,” or “give in,” in a fight or contest, would say, “I’ll make him BUCKLE under.” Shakespere, in his _Henry the Fourth_ (Part 2, Act i., Scene 1) has the word, and Mr. Halliwell, one of the greatest and most industrious of living antiquaries, informs us, that “the commentators do not supply another example.” How strange, then, that the Bard of Avon, and the Cockney costermongers, should be joint partners and sole proprietors of the vulgarism. If Shakespere was not a pugilist, he certainly anticipated the terms of the prize ring—or they were respectable words before the prize ring was thought of—for he has PAY, to beat or thrash, and PEPPER, with a similar meaning; also FANCY, in the sense of pets and favourites,—pugilists are often termed _the_ FANCY. The cant word PRIG, from the Saxon, _priccan_, to filch, is also Shakesperian; so indeed is PIECE, a contemptuous term for a young woman. Shakespere was not the only vulgar dramatist of his time. Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Brome, and other play-writers, occasionally put cant words into the mouths of their low characters, or employed old words which have since degenerated into vulgarisms. CRUSTY, poor tempered; “two of a KIDNEY,” two of a sort; LARK, a piece of fun; LUG, to pull; BUNG, to give or pass; PICKLE, a sad plight; FRUMP, to mock, are a few specimens casually picked from the works of the old histrionic writers. One old English mode of canting, simple and effective when familiarised by practice, was the inserting a consonant betwixt each syllable; thus, taking _g_, “How do you do?” would be “Hou_g_ do_g_ you_g_ do_g_?” The name very properly given to this disagreeable nonsense, we are informed by Grose, was _Gibberish_. Another Cant has recently been attempted by transposing the initial letters of words, so that a mutton chop becomes a _c_utton _m_op, a pint of stout a _s_tint of _p_out; but it is satisfactory to know that it has gained no ground. This is called _Marrowskying_, or _Medical Greek_, from its use by medical students at the hospitals. Albert Smith terms it the _Gower-street Dialect_. The _Language of Ziph_, I may add, is another rude mode of disguising English, in use among the students at Winchester College. ACCOUNT OF THE HIEROGLYPHICS USED BY VAGABONDS.