Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/586

 484 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io» s. iv. DEC. ie, m. his England') was later (August, 1580) than 4 The Schoole of Abuse.' It is not necessary to cite proofs or examples, since Gosson' dedications and the several following page are exactly euphuistic. One note may be interesting, however. At p. 275 of Arbor's reprint of Lyly—that is to say, in the 1580 portion—the simile of " the dogs of Egypt that drink water by snatches" (for fear of the •crocodiles) occurs. Lyly may have been in- debted, in his turn, to Gosson for this, since it occurs in the latter at p. 24. I must mention here that a passage con- cerning Gosson, ante, p. 3, is erroneous. ] •erased it in my proofs, but not in time to prevent its appearance. Greene's Non-Romantic Prose. I propose to deal very briefly with this series of tracts, chiefly for the purpose of making a few observations on the coney- •catching series, the cosenage tracts. Greene had predecessors in exposing cheats and their methods, but his work here is not borrowed from any of them. Perhaps down as the earliest thing of the kind ; but it is so imperfect that its purport is not easily to be discerned. It seems to be an enumera- tion of all the lower orders, especially those of a dissolute sort, by a chief amongst them, full of wit and humour, but hardly a warning note. Next in order came Robert Copeland's mentions 'Cok Lorel's Bote.' Its date is somewhere about 1530 probably, and it is important as being the earliest authority for the canting language : " theyr pedlyng frenche," as he calls it. It is to this poem that Dekker refers in his ' Lanthorne and Candle-Light,' 1609 (Grosart's ' Dekker,' iii. 193), when he is about to use Harman wholesale (for the second time) unacknow- ledged. Dekker gives us Copeland's date :— "Of canting. How long [marginal] By none but the souldiers of these tattred Dandea is it familiarly or usually spoken, yet within Jesse than fourescore yeares (now past) not a word of this Language was knowen. The first Inventor of it was hanged." There is a passage in this ballad that bears upon Greene's tracts :— I wote not what with theyr pedlyng frenche, But out of the Spyttle they have a party [?prety] stenche, And with them conies gaderers of cony skynnes That chop with laces, poyntes, nedles, and pyns. Hazlitt's ' Early Popular Poetry,' iv. 69. This gives us the origin and the explanation •of Greene's term "coney-catcher." In a foot-note on the following page will be found references to some tracts intervening between Awdely and Harman. "Them" in the above quotation refers to " patrying coves" (patricos), "prounces" (prancers), and others of the "fraternity." This piece is full of misprints. ' The Fraternitye of Vacabondes,' by John Awdely, alias John Sampson (1565), men- tions Cock Lorell and his barge on the title- page. It is a little tract, dealing first with the vagabond classes of "cozeners and shifters " (about twenty), mostly those familiar in the gipsy and pedlar's crews in later plays. This occupies eighteen pages in the reprint (1813), and nine more are given to 'The XXV. Orders of Knaves, otherwise called A Quartern of Knaves, confirmed for ever by Cock Lorell.' These are a very distinct lot (by name at least), and, to speak generally, hardly met with later. There are some _marks of a greater antiquity in this than in the preceding portion ; the subject- matter appears older. Barman's'Caveat for Common Cursitors' appeared in 1566, and makes full use of Awdely, developing his brief paragraphs, but rather omitting than adding to the list of rogues and vagabonds, whose titles were in some cases falling into disuse. It will be interesting to note their recrudescence in print, presently. In Greene's time many of these cheaters still held their ground, but often with changed names. Others seem obsolete ; and there is a large crop of up-to-date cozeners that appear for the first time. Greene's tracts seem to be an absolutely truthful survey of » 1602), often with Greene's name illegiti- mately made use of from his popularity. This has led to Greene's being falsely accused. For example, Simpson says ('School of Shake- speare,' ii. 380) that one of his tracts was "a nere piracy from Harman's ' Caveat for 'Jursitors.'" Simpson refers, no doubt, to The Groundworke of Coney-catching,' which )yce says is little more than a reprint of larman. It was ascribed to Greene, but he never had aught to do with it. For these Tacts see Dyce's ' List of Greene's Pro* Vbrks,' prefixed to his edition of the plays. )yce falls into one error. He enumerate* Theeves Falling out. True Men come by heir Own' (Harl. Miscell.), which was ndeed by Greene ; but it was a mere pob- isher's cheat in 1617 to earn a penny by eprinting Greene's 'Disputation between » Hee and a Shee Coney-Catcher' (1592) uoder
 * Cock Lorelle's Bote' (circa 1515) may be set
 * Hye Way to the Spyttel House, which
 * he position in his day. But a whole flight of
 * racts about coney-catchers appeared (1592