The Thieves’ Chaunt

The Thieves’ Chaunt
1836
By W. H. SMITH in The Individual.

I

There is a nook in the boozing ken, 1 public house
  Where many a mug I fog, 2 pipe; smoke
And the smoke curls gently, while cousin Ben
Keeps filling the pots again and again,
  If the coves have stump’d their hog. 3 paid a shilling

II

The liquors around are diamond bright,
  And the diddle is best of all; 4 gin
But I never in liquors took delight,
For liquors I think is all a bite, 5 humbug
  So for heavy wet I call. 6 porter

III

The heavy wet in a pewter quart,
  As brown as a badger’s hue,
More than Bristol milk or gin, 7 sherry
Brandy or rum, I tipple in,
  With my darling blowen, Sue. 8 mistress

IV

Oh! grunting peck in its eating 9 pork
Is a richly soft and savoury thing;
A Norfolk capon is jolly grub 10 red-herring
When you wash it down with strength of bub: 11 lots of beer
But dearer to me Sue’s kisses far,
Than grunting peck or other grub are,
And I never funks the lambskin men, 12 judges
When I sits with her in the boozing ken.

V

Her duds are bob—she’s a kinchin crack, 13 clothes; neat; fine young woman
And I hopes as how she’ll never back;
For she never lushes dog’s-soup or lap, 14 drinks water or tea
But she loves my cousin the bluffer’s tap. 15 inn-keeper
She’s wide-awake, and her prating cheat, [16 ]
For humming a cove was never beat; 17 fooling a man
But because she lately nimm’d some tin, 18 stole; money
They have sent her to lodge at the King’s Head Inn. 19 Newgate; Notes





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
. . .
Bobby And His Mary
Flashey Joe
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
. . .
Appendix