CHATTO AND WINDUS, PUBLISHERS LONDON MCMVII R. CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BUNGAY. If the ways and slang of Vagabonds and Beggars interested Martin Luther enough to make him write a preface to the Liber Vagatorum [1] in 1528, two of the ungodly may be excused for caring, in 1869, for the old Rogues of their English land, and for putting together three of the earliest tracts about them. Moreover, these tracts are part of the illustrative matter that we want round our great book on El

Thomas Harman's Will (p. xiv , above) I couldn't find at Doctors' Commons when I searcht for it, though three John-Harman wills of his time turnd up. The print of the Stationers' Registers calld for above, has since been produc't by Mr. Arber, to whose energy we are all so much indebted for such numbers of capital texts; and the book only needs an Index to be of real use. The entries on p. ii , vi , vii , above, are in Arber's Transcript , i. 157, 334, 345. (See too i. 348, 369. [39] ) The Hunte

A Curtesy man is one that walketh about the back lanes in London in the day time, and sometime in the broade streetes in the night season, and when he meeteth some handsome yong man clenly apareled, or some other honest Citizen, he maketh humble salutatio n s and low curtesy, and sheweth him that he hath a worde or two to speake with his mastership. This child can behaue him selfe manerly, for he wyll desire him that he talketh withall, to take the vpper hand, and shew him much reuerence, and at

Troll with is he tha t no man shall know the seruaunt from y e Maister. This knaue with his cap on his head [leaf 7b.] lyke Capon hardy, wyll syt downe by his Maister, or els go cheeke by cheeke with him in the streete. Troll hazard of trace is he that goeth behynde his Maister as far as he may see hym. Such knaues commonly vse to buy Spice-cakes, Apples, or other trifles, and doo eate them as they go in the streetes lyke vacabond Boyes. Troll hazard of tritrace, is he that goeth gaping after hi

AL though, good Reader, I wright in plain termes—and not so playnly as truely—concerning the matter, meaning honestly to all men, and wyshe them as much good as to myne owne harte; yet, as there hathe bene, so there is nowe, and hereafter wylbe, curyous heds to finde fauttes: wherefore I thought it necessary, now at this seconde Impression, to acquaynt th e with a great faulte, as some takethe it, but none [53] as I meane it, callinge these Vagabonds Cursetors in the intytelynge of my booke, as

HEre followeth the vnrulye rablement of rascals, and the moste notoryous and wyckedst walkers that are lyuinge nowe at this present, with their true names as they be called and knowne by. And although I set and place here but thre orders, yet, good Reader, vnderstand that all the others aboue named are deriued and come out from the vpright men and Roges. Concerning the number of Mortes and Doxes, it is superfluous to wryte of them. I could well haue don it, but the number of them is great, and w

the manner of their Pedlers-French, and the meanes to vnderstand the same, with the cunning slights of the Counterfeit Cranke. Therein are handled the practises of the Visiter , the Fetches of the Shifter and Rufflar, the deceits of their Doxes, the deuises of Priggers, the names of the base loytering Hosels, and the meanes of every Blacke-Art-mans shifts, with the reproofe of all their diuellish practises. Done by a Justice of Peace of great authoritie, who hath had the examining of divers of t