Page:The Galaxy, Volume 5.djvu/139

Rh pnblications by other authors, himself compiled what, he calls a slang dictionary—a dictionary of nearly 10,000 of the vulgar words, street phrases, and "fast" expressions of high and low society; "rabble-charming words which carry so much wildfire wrapt up in them." One-half of these words are reprinted from a previous collection issued in 1859; the remainder were gleaned in various ways, a portion of them being derived directly from the different wandering tribes of London and the country, through the help of the "chaunters" and "patterers," or sellers of songs and last dying speeches, in the streets of London. In the course of his etymological researches into the origin of these words, Mr, Hotten traces them through the beggars and thieves back to the Gypsies, who first appeared in England in the reign of Henry VIII. Within a dozen years after their arrival, companies of English vagrants were formed upon the model derived from them, and a fellowship was speedily established between the English and the foreign rogues. In some cases the Gypsies joined the English gangs; in others English vagrants joined the Gypsies. A necessity for some language which should be a common medium of intercourse hence arose. The secret language spoken by the Gypsies, principally Hindoo, was barbarous to English ears and difficult to learn. English had the same difficulties for the Gypsies. A rude compromise was made, and the result was a singular mixture of Gypsy, Old English and newly-coined words, and gleanings from foreign and thus secret languages, forming what has since been known as the "Canting Language," "Peddlar's French," or "St. Giles' Greek." Some of the words thus derived from the Hindoo have passed into common use, such as bamboozle, gibberish, bosh, and the very word—slang—which gives title to the contraband language. Jockey also came from the Gypsy, in which tongue it means a whip. As George Borrow happily says, many of the words which the philologist has summarily dismissed as of vulgar invention, or of unknown origin, he might have traced "to the Sclavonic, Persian, or Romaic, or, perhaps, to the mysterious object of his veneration—the Sanscrit, the sacred tongue of the palm-covered regions of Ind." In addition to the contributions of the Gypsies, the language of slang has been enriched by contributions of Dutch, Spanish and Flemish words, introduced by soldiers who had served in the Low Countries, and sailors who had returned from the Spanish Main; by Gaelic and Irish words derived from the Scotch and Irish vagabonds; by words imported by sailors and organ-grinders from the Lingua Franca, or bastard Italian of the Mediterranean seaports; by Hebrew words obtained from the Jew receivers of stolen goods; by Hindostance words brought by Lascar sailors, and even by contributions from the Latin prayers in use before the Reformation. Thus all tongues are made tributary to the colloquial and vulgar speech of the common people of England, and of the thieves and vagabonds as well, "many of whose words and phrases," as Mr. Buckle is quoted as saying, "are but serving their apprenticeship, and will eventually become the active strength of our language."

is much contemned by those who affect fastidiousness in wit. And their contempt is just where the pun is, as it is so often, a mere play upon words. But when the play of words involves a play of thought, and the similarity of sound presents simultaneously ideas ludicrously incongruous, punning is genuine humor, although not the highest. Thus Hood's description of the meeting of the man and the lion, when "the man ran off with all his might and the lion with all his mane," attained the acme of whimsical absurdity. Lamb's question to the young lawyer about his first brief—"Did you address it 'Thou great first cause, least understood?—was