_Year of first publication._ 1885. On The Stage And Off (Field & T.) 1886. Idle Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow (Field & T.) 1889. Stage Land (Chatto & Windus.) 1889. Three Men In A Boat (E. L.) 1890. Told After Supper (Field & T.) 1891. Diary Of A Pilgrimage (T. E.) 1893. John Ingerfield (McLure.) 1893. Novel Notes (T. E.) 1897. Sketches In Lavender, Blue And Green (T. E.) 1897. Humours Of Cycling (Chatto.) 1898. Second Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow (Hurst.) 1900. Three Men On The Bummel (T. E.) 1902. Paul Kelver. I, II. (T. E.) 1903. Tea Table Talk and the Observations of Henry (T. E.) [Here Cited As T. T. T.] 1904. Tommy And Co. (T. E.) 1905. Idle Ideas In 1905 (Hurst.) 1907. The Passing Of The Third Floor Back (T. E.) 1908. The Angel And The Author (Hurst & Co.) 1909. They And I (T. E.) _Plays_ Miss Hobbs (Messrs. Samuel French, Ltd.) Woodbarrow Farm ( » » » » ) Prude’s Progress (French’s Acting Ed.) Barbara ( » » ) Sunset ( » » ) Fennel ( » » ) Introduction. During the last years, a conspicuous interest—not only on the part of philologists—has been devoted to that strange outgrowth of language which prospers and develops, unrestricted by all literary traditions, in the easy, natural talk of uncultivated people and of certain groups and trades. This special language is, indeed, of real interest, and its study is of importance, not only as a matter of curiosity. The philologist has here ample scope for observations of different kinds. In the language of the uneducated ‘vulgus’, he will often meet with the first traces of an evolution which the literary and cultivated language will have to pass through in the future; on the other hand, he will recognize old forms and obsolete constructions which have passed out of use in the language of the cultivated. Concerning the development of the sense of words, as well as phonetic development, he will be able to make observations of great interest. In this special language _literature_ has at its disposal an ever-flowing source of renewal. It is supplied with an abundance of picturesque, amusing, and characteristic words, of surprising and original expressions, of terms constituting a spontaneous and striking manifestation of the speaker’s thought at a certain moment. Every individual being allowed to speak his own natural language, character-drawing gains in veracity, literary description in freshness and variety. In one of Jerome’s books (Paul Kelver, Vol. II. p. 208. l. 14), we come across the following little dialogue: »The wonderful songs that nobody ever sings, the wonderful pictures that nobody ever paints, and all the rest of it. It’s _Tommy rot_!» »I wish you wouldn’t use _slang_.»