/ · John S. Farmer’s Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes
The House Breaker’s Song
The House Breaker’s Song
c. 1838
By G. W. M. REYNOLDS in Pickwick Abroad.
I
I ne’er was a nose, for the reg’lars came
1 police spy; share of the booty
Whenever a pannie was done:—
2 house was burgled
Oh! who would chirp to dishonour his name,
And betrays his pals in a nibsome game
3 gentlemanly
To the traps?—Not I for one!
4 police-officers
Let nobs in the fur trade hold their jaw,
5 Old Bailey pleaders
And let the jug be free:—
6 prison
Let Davy’s dust and a well-faked claw
7 gunpowder, hand dextrous at thieving
For fancy coves be the only law,
8 thieves
And a double-tongued squib to keep in awe
9 double-barrelled gun
The chaps that flout at me!
II
From morn till night we’ll booze a ken,
10 drink freely
And we’ll pass the bingo round;
11 brandy
At dusk we’ll make our lucky, and then,
12 depart
With our nags so fresh, and our merry men,
We’ll scour the lonely ground.
And if the swell resist our “Stand!”
We’ll squib without a joke;
13 fire
For I’m snigger’d if we will be trepanned
14 transported
By the blarneying jaw of a knowing hand,
And thus be lagged to a foreign land,
Or die by an artichoke.
15 hanging [hearty choke]
III
But should the traps be on the sly,
For a change we’ll have a crack;
16 burglary
The richest cribs shall our wants supply—
17 houses
Or we’ll knap a fogle with fingers fly,
18 steal; handkerchief
When the swell one turns his back.
19 skilful
The flimsies we can smash as well,
20 pass false notes
Or a ticker deftly prig:—
21 watch
But if ever a pal in limbo fell,
22 prison
He’d sooner be scragg’d at once than tell;
23 hanged
Though the hum-box patterer talked of hell,
24 parson
And the beak wore his nattiest wig.
25 magistrate; handsomest
Notes
G. W. M. Reynolds followed closely on the heels of Dickens when the
latter scored his great success in The Pickwick Papers. He was
a most voluminous scribbler, but none of his productions are of high
literary merit.
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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