/ · John S. Farmer’s Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes

Rum Coves that Relieve us

Rum Coves that Relieve us
1887

I

Rum coves that relieve us 1 thieves
Of clunkers and pieces, 2 money
Is gin’rally lagged, 3 imprisoned
Or wuss luck gets scragg’d. 4 hung

II

Are smashers and divers 5 counterfeiters; pickpockets
And noble contrivers
Not sold to the beaks 6 magistrates
By the coppers an’ sneaks? 7 police; informers

 III

Yet moochin’ arch-screevers, 8 prowling; begging letter writers
Concoctin’ deceivers,
Chaps as reap like their own
What by tothers were sown;

IV

Piratical fakers 9 writers of "blood and thunder"
Of bosh by the acres,
These muck-worms of trash
Cut, oh, a great dash.

V

But, there, it don’t matter
Since, to cut it still fatter,
By ’ook and by crook
Ve’ve got up this book.

VI

Tell ye ’ow? Vy in rum kens, 10 queer places
In flash cribs and slum dens, 11 thieves’ resorts
I’ the alleys and courts,
’Mong the doocedest sorts;

VII

When jawin’ with Jillie
Or Mag and ’er Billie,
Ve shoved down in black
Their illigant clack. 12 talk

VIII

So from hartful young dodgers,
From vaxy old codgers, 13 men
From the blowens ve got 14 prostitutes
Soon to know vot is vot.

IX

Now then there is yer sumptuous
Tuck-in of most scrumptious,
And dainty mag-pie! 15 speech
Will ye jes’ come and try?

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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Nearby

• 1811 Dictionary of UK Slang, originally by Captain Francis Grose
• 1736 Dictionary of Thieving Slang by Nathan Bailey