The English Rogue: Continued in the Life of Meriton Latroon, and Other Extravagants: The Second PartHead, Richard
General
The English Rogue: Continued in the Life of Meriton Latroon, and Other Extravagants: The Second Part
Head, Richard
Rogues and vagabonds -- England -- Fiction
_This is_ Bien Bowse, _this is_ Bien Bowse,
_Too little is my skew._
_I_ Bowse _no_ Lage, _but a whole_ Gage
_Of this ile_ Bowse _to you._
_This_ Bowse _is better than_ Rom-Bowse,
_It sets the_ Gan _a gigling;_
_The_ Autem Mort _finds better sport_
_In_ Bowsing _than in_ nigling.
_Tis better than_ Peckidge, Plannam,
_Than_ Yarum, Loure, _or_ Lage;
_Then lift the same up to thy_ Nab,
_And_ Bowse _off a whole_ Gage.
Being thus rowsed, and having shaken our eares a little, the _Upright
man_ (who was the Bel-weather of the flock) appointed out the station
wherein every one should go, prefixing a day wherein we were all to meet
again. My _Doxy_ and I had a particular walk assigned unto us, wherein
we were to travel, and not to intrench upon any of the others limits;
whilst I thus rambled about with her, I learned of her the several
qualities and offices of the Brother-hood, and how they were
distinguished from each other according to their degrees of
_superiority_ and _inferiority_: the men were divided into these twenty
several sorts.
1 _Upright men._
2 _Rufflers._
3 _Anglers._
4 _Rogues._
5 _Wilde Rogues._
6 _Priggers of Prancers._
7 _Palliards, or Clapperdugeons._
8 _Fraters._
9 _Quire Birds._
10 _Abraham-men._
11 _Whip-jacks._
12 _Counterfeit Crancks._
13 _Dummerars._
14 _Jack-men._
15 _Patrico’s._
16 _Irish Toyles._
17 _Swigmen._
18 _Glymmerars._
19 _Curtalls._
20 _Kinchen Co’s._
Of the Women kinde were only these six.
1 _Kitchen Morts._
2 _Dells._
3 _Doxies._
4 _Walking Morts._
5 _Autem Morts._
6 _Bawdy Baskets._
And now what these several sorts of people are, you shall hear by their
descriptions.
1. An _Upright-man_ is the chief of all the Ragged Regiment, he walks
like a Commander with a short Truncheon in his hand which he calls his
_Filch-man_; pretends himself to be a decayed Souldier, and claimes a
share in all the Booties which any other inferior _Rogues_ do get; he
hath all the _Morts_ and _Doxies_ at his beck, and can command them from
any other of the _Gang_ at his pleasure. By this description you see
there is a great deal of difference betwixt an _Upright man_ and an
_honest man_.
2 A _Ruffler_ is the same in Conditions as an _Upright man, like to like
quoth the_ Devil _to the_ Collier; they both of them pretend themselves
to be decayed Souldiers, are both of them very imperious over the
inferior Subjects of their _Common-wealth_: receiving tribute also from
_Rogues_, _Palliards_, _Morts_, _Doxies_, _&c._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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