/ · John S. Farmer’s Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes
The Rum-Mort’s Praise Of Her Faithless Maunder
The Rum-Mort’s Praise Of Her Faithless Maunder
1707
From The Triumph of Wit, by J. Shirley: also in New Canting Dict..
I
Now my kinching-cove is gone,
1 little man
By the rum-pad maundeth none,
2 highway; beggeth
Quarrons both for stump and bone,
3 body
Like my clapperdogeon.
4 Notes
II
Dimber damber fare thee well,
5 Notes
Palliards all thou didst excel,
6 Notes
And thy jockum bore the Bell,
7 Notes
Glimmer on it never fell.
8 Notes
III
Thou the cramprings ne’er did scowre,
9 fetters; wear
Harmans had on thee no power,
10 stocks
Harmanbecks did never toure;
11 constables, look
For thee, the drawers still had loure.
12 pockets; money
IV
Duds and cheats thou oft hast won,
13 clothes; general plunder
Yet the cuffin quire couldst shun;
14 magistrate
And the deuseaville didst run,
15 country
Else the chates had thee undone.
16 gallows
V
Crank and dommerar thou couldst play,
17 Notes
Or rum-maunder in one day,
And like an Abram-cove couldst pray,
Yet pass with gybes well jerk’d away.
VI
When the darkmans have been wet,
18 night
Thou the crackmans down didst beat
19 hedge
For glimmer, whilst a quaking cheat,
20 fire, duck
Or tib-o’-th’-buttry was our meat.
21 goose
VII
Red shanks then I could not lack,
22 turkey
Ruff peck still hung on my Back,
23 bacon
Grannam ever fill’d my sack
24 corn
With lap and poplars held I tack.
25 any potable; porridge
VIII
To thy bugher and thy skew,
26 dog; wooden dish
Filch and gybes I bid adieu,
27 hook; counterfeit pass
Though thy togeman was not new,
28 cloak
In it the rogue to me was true.
Notes
Obviously a companion song to the previous example: See Note
ante. Rum-Mort = a beggar or gypsy queen.
Stanza I, line 1. Kinching-cove = (literally) a child or young
lad: here as an endearment. Line 4. Clapperdogeon = “The
Paillard or Clapperdogeons, are those that have been brought up to beg
from their infancy, and frequently counterfeit lameness, making their
legs, arms, and hands appear to be sore”—Triumph of Wit, p.
185.
Stanza II, line 1. Dimber-damber = a chief man in the Canting
Crew, or the head of a gang. Line 2. Palliard (See note Stanza
I). Line 3. jockum =penis. Line 4. glimmer =
fire; here, a pox or clap.
Stanza V, line 1. crank (or counterfeit-crank)—“These
that do counterfet the cranke be yong knaves and yonge harlots that
deeply dissemble the falling sickness”.—(Harman, Caveat, 1814,
p. 33). Line 1. dommerar= a beggar feigning deaf and dumb. Line
2. rum-maunder = to feign madness. Line 3. Abram-cove =
a beggar pretending madness to cover theft. Line 4. Gybes well
jerk’d = pass or license cleverly forged.
Taken from
Musa Pedestris,
Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes
[1536―1896], collected and annotated by John S. Farmer.
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