The Faking Boy To The Crap Is Gone

The Faking Boy To The Crap Is Gone
1841
By BON GAULTIER in Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine.

I

The faking boy to the crap is gone, 1 pickpocket; gallows
At the nubbing-cheat you’ll find him; 2 gallows
The hempen cord they have girded on,
And his elbows pinned behind him.
“Smash my glim,” cries the reg’lar card, 3 blast my eyes!
“Though the girl you love betrays you,
Don’t split, but die both game and hard,
And grateful pals shall praise you.”

II

The bolt it fell,—a jerk, a strain!
The sheriff’s fled asunder;
The faking-boy ne’er spoke again,
For they pulled his legs from under.
And there he dangles on the tree,
That sort of love and bravery!
Oh, that such men should victims be
Of law, and law’s vile knavery.





Notes

“Bon Gualtier” was the joint nom-de-plume of W. E. Aytoun and Sir Theodore Martin. Between 1840 and 1844 they worked together in the production of The Bon Gualtier Ballads, which acquired such great popularity that thirteen large editions of them were called for between 1855 and 1877. They were also associated at this time in writing many prose magazine articles of a humorous character, as well as a series of translations of Goethe’s ballads and minor poems, which, after appearing in Blackwood’s Magazine, were some years afterwards (1858) collected and published in a volume. The four pieces above mentioned appeared as stated in Tails Edinburgh Magazine under the title of “Flowers of Hemp, or the Newgate Garland,” and are parodies of well-known songs.

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

Overview
Forewords
. . .
My Mugging Maid
Poor Luddy
The Pickpocket’s Chaunt
On the Prigging Lay
The Lag’s Lament
Nix My Doll, Pals, Fake Away
The Game Of High Toby
The Double Cross
The Thieves’ Chaunt
The House Breaker’s Song
The Faking Boy To The Crap Is Gone
The Nutty Blowen
The Faker’s New Toast
My Mother
The High-Pad’s Frolic
The Dashy, Splashy.... Little Stringer
The Bould Yeoman
The Bridle-Cull and his little Pop-Gun
Jack Flashman
Miss Dolly Trull
The By-Blow Of The Jug
. . .
Appendix