Lexicon

Bal at ron i cum; a Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence, by a Member of the Whip Club, a isted by Hell-fire Dick, 8vo. 1811. One of the many reprints of Grose’s second edition, put forth under a fresh, and what was then considered a more attractive title. It was given out in advertisements, ., as a piece of puff, that it was edited by a Dr. H. Clarke, but contains scarcely a line more than Grose. Liber Vagatorum: Der Betler Orden, 4to. Translated into English, with Notes, by John Camden Hotten, as The Book of Vagabonds and Beggars, with a vocabulary of their Language ( Rotwelsche Sprach ); edited, with preface, by Martin Luther, in the year 1528, 4to, with woodcuts . 1859. The first edition of this book appears to have been printed at Augsburg, by Erhard Oglin, or Ocellus, about 1514,—a small quarto of twelve leaves. It was frequently reprinted at other places in Germany: and in 1528 there appeared an edition at Wirtemberg, with a preface by Martin Luther, who says that the “Rotwelsche Sprach,” the Cant language of the beggars, comes from the Jews, as it contains many Hebrew words, as any one who understands that language may perceive. This book is divided into three parts, or sections; the first gives a special account of the several orders of the “Fraternity of Vagabonds;” the second, sundry “ notabilia ” relating to the different cla es of beggars previously described; and the third consists of a “Rotwelsche Vocabulary,” or “Canting Dictionary.” There is a long notice of the “Liber Vagatorum” in the “Weimarisches Jahrbuch,” 10ter Band, 1856. Mayhew, in his London Labour , states that many of our Cant words are derived from the Jew fences. It is singular that a similar statement should have been made by Martin Luther more than three centuries before.