Thomas Harman, A Caveat for Common Cursitors (1567)

Date

1567

Author

Thomas Harman, esquier(alternate name for Thomas Harman )

Lexicon title

Here I set before thee good Reader, the leud lousey language of these lewtering Luskes, and lasy Lorrels, wher with they bye and sell the common people as they passe through the country. Which language they terme Peddelars Frenche, a unknowen tong onely, but to these bold beastly bawdye Beggers, and vaine Vacabondes, being halfe myngled with Englyshe, when it is familiarly talked, and fyrste placing thinges by their proper names, as an Introduction to this peuysh speeche

Book title

A Caueat For Commen Cursetors Vvlgarely Called Vagabones, set forth by Thomas Harman. Esquier, for the vtilite and proffyt of hys naturall Countrey. Newly agmented and Imprinted Anno Domini. M.D.LXVII. Vewed, examined and allowed, according vnto the Queenes Maiestyes iniunctions

Publication place

London

Publisher

Wylliam Gryffith

Transcription source

EEBO (Henry E. Huntington Library)

Text type

printed book

Genre

Hard-word, term-of-art, and dialect dictionaries, glossaries, and definitions

Subject area

canting

Summary

A book about canting and its language

Language

headwords: English
explanations: English
explanations: English

Extent

G2v-G4v

Word-group

type: alphabetical

Word-entry

type: headword
sample: Nab. a head.

Alston

IX.220

Schafer

1567 H

STC

12787

Catalog

Kennedy, Arthur Garfield. A Bibliography on Writings on the English Language from the Beginning of Printing to the End of 1922. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1927. 11869. view record

Other editions

1567: STC 12787.5 ("A caueat or warening...Augmented and inlarged..."); 1573: STC 12788 (Henry E. Huntington Library 61292); 1577: STC 13568 (in Holinshed's Chronicles, III, ca. 5, d2v-d3r) 1592: STC 12789 ("The groundworke of conny-catching...") and STC 12789.5 ("The groundeworke...")

Facsimiles

Harman, Thomas. A Caveat or Warning for Common Cursetors Vulgarly Called Vagabonds, set forth by Thomas Harman, for the utility and profit of his natural country; whereunto is added the Tale of the second taking of the counterfeit crank with the true report of his behaviour, and also his punishment for his dissembling, most marvelous to the hearer or reader thereof. London: Bensley, 1814. view record

Modern editions

Viles, Edward and F. J. Furnivall, eds. The Rogues and Vagabonds of Shakespeare's Youth: Awdeley's "Fraternitye of vacabondes" and Harman's "Caveat". NSS VI.7; Early English Text Society, Extra Series 9. London: Chatto and Windus, 1869, 1880, 1907. 17-91. view record

Criticisms

Aydelotte, Frank. Elizabethan Rogues and Vagabonds. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913. 122-23. view record
Chandler, Frank Wadleigh. The Literature of Roguery. 2 vols. New York: n.p., 1907. view record
Clark, Sandra. The Elizabethan Pamphleteers: Popular Moralistic Pamphlets 1580-1640. London: n.p., 1982. 43-45. view record
Gotti, Maurizio. The Language of Thieves and Vagabonds: 17th and 18th Century Canting Lexicography in England. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1999. 22-25 . view record
Judges, A. V., ed. The Elizabethan Underworld. London: n.p., 1930. 114-15. view record
Lievsay, J. L. "Newgate Penitents: Further Aspects of Elizabethan Pamphlet Sensationalism." Huntington Library Quarterly 7 (1943): 47-69. view record
McPeek, James A[ndrew] S[carborough]. The Black Book of Knaves and Unthrifts in Shakespeare and Other Renaissance Authors. The University of Connecticut Publication Series. Storrs, Conn.: n.p., 1969. view record
Coleman, Julie. A History of Cant and Slang Dictionaries. Vol. I: 1567-1784. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. 20-29. view record