down from the fly-sticking of Domitian, the molecatching of Artabanus, the hog-mimicking of Parmenides, the horse-currying of Aretas, to the petticoatembroidering of Ferdinand, and the patience-playing of the Pe R▬▬t! Note 2, page 140, col. 1. Your curst tea and toast. Is Mr Bob aware that his contempt for tea renders him liable to a charge of atheism? Such, at least, is the opinion cited in Christian. Falster. Amænitat. Philolog. Atheum interpretabatur hominem ab herba The aversum." He would not, I think, have been so irreverent to this beverage of scholars, if he had read Peter Petit's Poem in praise of Tea, addressed to the learned Huet-or the Epigraph which Pechlinus wrote for an altar he meant to dedicate to this herb-or the Anacreontics of Peter Francius, in which he calls Tea Θεαν, στην, θεαιναν. The following passage from one of these Anacreontics will, I have no doubt, be gratifying to all true Theists. Θεοίς, θεων, τε πατρι Εν χρυσεοις σκυψεισι Which may be thus translated: Yes, let Hebe, ever young, High in heaven her nectar hold, Pour the tide in cups of gold.- While, with snowy hands, for me, Note 3, page 141, col. 1. Here break we off, at this unhallow'd name. The late Lord C. of Ireland had a curious theory about names; he held that every man with three names was a jacobin. His instances in Ireland were numerous :-viz. Archibald Hamilton Rowan, Theobald Wolfe Tone, James Napper Tandy, John Philpot Curran, etc. etc. and, in England, he produced as examples Charles James Fox, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, John Horne Tooke, Francis Burdett Jones, etc. etc. The Romans called a thief. homo trium literarum. Note 5, page 143, col. 1. No one can suspect Boileau of a sneer at his royal master, but the following lines, intended for praise, look very like one. Describing the celebrated passage of the Rhine, during which Louis remained on the safe side of the river, he says, Louis, les animant du feu de son courage, Note 6, page 144, col. 1. Turns from his victims to his glees, And has them both well executed, How amply these two propensities of the Noble Lord would have been gratified among that ancient people of Etruria, who, as Aristotle tells us, used to whip their slaves once a year to the sound of flutes! Note 7, page 148, col. 2. Lampreys, indeed, seem to have been always a favourite dish with Kings-whether from some congeniality between them and that fish, I know not; but Dio Cassius tells us that Pollio fattened his lampreys with human blood. St Louis of France was particularly fond of them.-See the anecdote of Thomas Aquinas cating up his majesty's lamprey, in a note upon Rabelais, liv. 3. chap. 2. Note 8, page 148, col. 1. Till five o'clock brings on that hour so momentous. Had Mr Bob's Dinner Epistle been inserted, I was prepared with an abundance of learned matter to illustrate it, for which, as indeed, for all my W scientia popinæ, I am indebted to a friend in the Dublin University,-whose reading formerly lay in the magic line; but in consequence of the Provost's enlightened alarm at such studies, he has taken to the authors de re cibaria» instead; and has left Bodin, Remigius, Agrippa, and his little dog Filiolus, for Apicius, Nonius, and that most learned and savoury jesuit, Bulengerus. " Note 9, page 151, col. 2. pun 募 « Live bullion, says merciless Bob, which I think. Would, if coin'd with a little mint sauce, be delicious!» Mr Bob need not be ashamed of his cookery jokes, when he is kept in countenance by such men as Cicero, St Augustine, and that jovial bishop, Venantius Fortunatus. The of the great orator upon the jus Verrinum, which he calls bad hog broth, from a play upon both the words, is well known; and the Saint's puns upon the conversion of Lot's wife into salt are equally ingenious: In salem conversa hominibus fidelibus quoddam præstitit condimentum, quo sapiant aliquid, unde illud caveatur exemplum.-De Civitat. Dei, lib. 16, cap. 30.-The jokes of the pious favourite of Queen Radagunda, the convivial Bishop Venantius, may be found among his poems, in some lines against a cook who had robbed him. The following is similar to Cicero's pun. Plus jucella Coci quam mea jura valet. See his poems, Corpus Pætar. Latin. Tom. 2, p. 1732. -Of the same kind was Montmaur's joke, when a dish was spilt over him- summum jus, summa injuria;" and the same celebrated parasite, in ordering a sole to be placed before him, said, Eligi oni dicas, tu mihi sola places. PREFACE sak limette A true t Y tu te Gramma wality sand at kimer Casper, wie W. Boa Game. Her Gavear Cooria. sad a few nuNE LEMOS besturen of In FAME had two crabred at a Cast Marine ch Que Pros creue Fraternity that, as all the milling Vvørts & Europe to compromet for us by deputy, at Mesha Craguém, at was brut right that Tær Fancy moni have it septemesstativen there as well as the rest, and Buse gentlemen were meegedingly welorted for that high, and honorable au devription of this Meeting of ths ago tam perken, the towñutiom, ore, du, has been given in a letter written by one of the most eminent of the prodien, which will be found in the Appendix, ↑ So, 1. Mr Gain's Memorial, which now for the first time meets the public eye, was drawn up for the purpose of being transmitted by these gentlemen to Congress, and, as it could not possibly be in better hands for the enforcement of every point connected with the subject, there in every reason to hope that it has made a suitable impresion upon that body. The favour into which this branch of Gymnastics, called Pugdom (from the Greek 5, as the author of Boxana learnedly observes,, has risen with the Public of late years, and the long season of tranquility which we are now promised by the new Millennarians of the Holy League, encourage us to look forward with some degres of sanguineness to an order of things, like that which Prato and TOM GRIB have described the former in the motto prefixed to this work, and the latter in the interesting Memorial that follows,, when the Milling shall succeed to the Military system, and THE FANCY will be the sole arbitress of the trifling disputes of mankind From a wish to throw every possible light on the history of an Art, which is destined ere Lade prias a.. Telarial tempora. Move t Lear. Lib. 4. v. 3. To wander through Tur FANCY's bowers, The residene of the Nonparel, Jack Randall, where, the day after his last great victory, he held a levee, which was attended, of course, by all the leading characters of St Giles's. with similar hallucinations. The Mil. Glorios. of Plautus he converted, the other day, into a Glorious Mill; and more than once, when I have referred to Tom. prim. or Tom. quart. he has substituted Tom Crib and Tom Oliver in their places. Notwithstanding all this, the work will be found, I trust, tolerably correct; and as an Analysis of its opening Chapters may not only gratify the impatience of the Fanciful World, but save my future reviewers some trouble, it is here given as succinctly as possible. rived to drag; and whence, also, a flash etymologist might contrive to derive papa, drama, Thespis having first performed in a drag. This chapter will be found highly curious; and distinguished, I flatter myself, by much of that acuteness which enabled a late illustrious Professor to discover that our English Son of a Gun. was nothing more than the Hats гuvns (Dor.) of the Greeks. Chap. 4 enumerates the many celebrated Boxers of antiquity. Eryx (grandson of the Amycus already Chap. 1 contains some account of the ancient in- mentioned), whom Hercules is said to have finished ventors of pugilism, Epeus and Amycus.-The early in style.-Phrynon, the Athenian General, and Autoexploit of the former, in milling his twin-brother, in lycus, of whom, Pausanias tells us, there was a statue ventre matris, and so getting before him into the world, in the Prytaneum-The celebrated Pugilist, who, at the as related by Eustathius on the authority of Lycophron. very moment he was expiring, had game enough to -Amycus, a Royal Amateur of THE FANCY, who chal- make his adversary give in; which interesting circumlenged to the scratch all strangers that landed on his stance forms the subject of one of the Pictures of shore. The Combat between him and Pollux (who, to Philostratus, Icon. lib. 2, imag. 6,-and above all, use the classic phrase, served him out), as described by that renowned Son of the Fancy, Melancomas, the faTheocritus,' Apollonius Rhodius,2 and Valerius Flaccus.3 vourite of the Emperor Titus, in whose praise Dio -Respective merits of these three descriptions.-Theo-Chrysostomus has left us two elaborate orations. 2— critus by far the best; and, altogether, perhaps, the The peculiarities of this boxer discussed-his power of most scientific account of a Boxing-match in all anti-standing with his arms extended for two whole days, quity.-Apollonius ought to have done better, with without any rest (vatos ny, says Dio, xat duo huepas such a model before him; but, evidently not up to the έξης μενειν ανατετακως τας χείρας, και ουκ αν είδεν thing (whatever Scaliger may say), and his similes all ουδείς ύρεντα αυτόν η αναπαυσάμενον ώσπερ ειώθασι. slum.4-Valerius Flaccus, the first Latin Epic Poet after Orat. 28), by which means he wore out his adversary's Virgil, has done ample justice to this Set-to; feints, bottom, and conquered without either giving or taking. facers, and ribbers, all described most spiritedly. This bloodless system of milling, which trusted for victory to patience alone, has afforded to the orator, Themistius, a happy illustration of the peaceful conquests which he attributes to the Emperor Valens.3 Chap. 2 proves that the Pancratium of the ancients, as combining boxing and wrestling, was the branch of their Gymnastics that most resembled our modern Pugilism; cross-buttocking (or what the Greeks called υποσκελίζειν) being as indispensable an ingredient as nobbing, flooring, etc. etc.-Their ideas of a stand-up fight were very similar to our own, as appears from the το παίειν αλλήλους ΟΡΘΟΣΤΑΔΗΝ of Lucian,-περι Γυμνας. | Lib. 4. v. 290. Et pater orantes casorum Tartarus mbras V. 258. The following words, in which Dio so decidedly prefers the art of the Boxer to that of the soldier, would perhaps have been a still more significant motto to Mr Crib's Memorial than that which I have chosen from Plato: Και καθόλου δε εγωγε τούτο της εν τοις πολέμοις αρετης προκρίνω. 3 Ην τις επί των προγόνων των ἡμετέρων πύκτης ανηρ, Μελαγκο μας όνομα αυτῷ ......... ούτος ουδένα πώποτε τρώσας, ουδε πατάξας, μονη τη ςάσει και τη των χειρών αναςάσει παντας απέχναις τους αντιπα λους. — THEMIST. Orat. περι Ειρήνης. 4 Kent's Weekly Dispatch. tan, in the battle between him and Capaneus, so minutely and vividly described by Statius, Thebaid. lib. 6. sed non, tamen, immemor artis, Adversus fugit, et fugiens tamen ictibus obstat.' And it will be only necessary to compare together two extracts from Boxiana and the Bard of Syracuse, to see how similar in their manœuvres have been the millers of all ages. The Man of Colour, to prevent being fibbed, grasped tight hold of Carter's hand-2—(Account of the Fight between Robinson the Black and Carter), which, (translating λιλαιομένος, «the Lily-white, 3) is almost word for word with the following: Ητοι όγε ρέξαι τι λιλαιομένος μέγα έργον Chap. 6 proves, from the jawing-match and Set-to between Ulysses and the Beggar in the 18th Book of the Odyssey, that the ancients (notwithstanding their dixxix paxovtav, or Laws of Combatants, which, Artemidorus says in his chap. 33, пɛрt Movoμzz. extended to pugilism as well as other kinds of combats) did not properly understand fair play; as Ulysses is here obliged to require an oath from the standers-by, that they will not deal him a sly knock, while he is cleaning out the mumper Μη τις επ' Ιρω ηρα φέρων εμε χειρι παχείη Πλήξη ατασθαλλων, τούτῳ δε με ιρι δάμασση. Chap. 7 describes the Cestus, and shows that the Greeks, for mere exercise of sparring, made use of muffles or gloves, as we do, which they called p2tp21. This appears particularly from a passage in Plato, de Leg. lib. 8, where, speaking of training, he says, it is only by frequent use of the gloves that a knowledge of stopping and hitting can be acquired. The whole passage is curious, as proving that the Divine Plato was not altogether a novice in the Fancy lay 4-Kat is eyyu. τατα του όμοιου, αντί ἱμαντων ΣΦΑΙΡΑΣ αν περιελούμεθα, όπως αἱ ΠΛΗΓΑΙ τε και αἱ ΤΩΝ ΠΔΗΤΩΝ ΕΥΛΑΒΕΙΑ! διεμελετώντο εις τι δυνατον έκα5.-These muffles were called by the Romans sacculi, as we find from Trebellius Pollio, who, in describing a triumph of Gallienus, mentions the Pugiles sacculis non veritate pugilantes.. Chap. 8 adverts to the pugilistic exhibitions of the Spartan ladies, which Propertius has thus commemorated Pulverulentaque ad extremas stat fœmina metas, Nunc ligat ad cæstum gaudentia brachia loris, etc. etc. Lib. 3, el. 14. and, to prove that the moderns are not behind-hand with the ancients in this respect, cites the following in 1 Yet, not unmindful of his art, he hies, LEWIS. * A mancouvre, commonly called Tom Owen's stop, The Flash term for a negro, and also for a chimney-sweeper. Another philosopher, Seneca, has shown himself equally flash on the subject, and, in his 13th Epistle, lays it down as an axiom, that no pugilist can be considered worth any thing, till he has had his peepers taken measure of for a suit of mourning, or, in common language, has received a pair of black eyes. The whole passage is edifying: Non potest athleta magros spiritus ad certamen afferre, qui nunquam sugillatus est. Ille qui videt sanguinem suum, cujus dentes crepuerunt sub pugno, ille qui supplantatus adversarium toto tulit corpore, nec projecit animum projectus, qui quoties cecidit contumacior resurrexit, cum magna spe descendit ad pugnam.. stance recorded in Boxiana:- George Madox, in this battle, was seconded by his sister, Grace, who, upon its conclusion, tossed up her hat in defiance, and offered to fight any man present;-also the memorable challenge, given in the same work (vol. i, p. 300), which passed between Mrs Elizabeth Wilkinson of Clerkenwell, and Miss Hannah Hyfield of Newgate-Market—another proof that the English may boast many a « dolce guerriera as well as the Greeks. Chap. 9 contains Accounts of all the celebrated Settos of antiquity, translated from the works of the different authors that have described them,-viz. the famous Argonautic Battle, as detailed by the three poets mentioned in chap. 1,-the Fight between Epeus and Euryalus, in the 23d Book of the Iliad, and between Ulysses and Irus in the 18th Book of the Odyssey-the Combat of Dares and Entellus in the 5th Æneid-of Capaneus and Alcidamus, already referred to, in Statius, and of Achelous and Hercules in the 9th Book of the Metamorphoses; though this last is rather a wrestlingbout than a mill, resembling that between Hercules' and Antæus in the 4th Book of Lucan. The reader who is auxious to know how I have succeeded in this part of my task, will find, as a specimen, my translation from Virgil in the Appendix to the present work, No. 2. Chap. 10 considers the various arguments for and against Pugilism, advanced by writers ancient and modern.-A strange instance of either ignorance or wilful falsehood in Lucian, who, in his Anacharsis, has represented Solon as one of the warmest advocates for Pugilism, whereas we know from Diogenes Laertius that that legislator took every possible pains to discourage and suppress it.—Alexander the Great, too, tasteless enough to prohibit THE FANCY (Plutarch in Vit.).—Galen in many parts of his works, but particularly in the Hortat. ad Art. condemns the practice as enervating and favour, numerous.--The greater number of Pindar's pernicious.2-On the other side, the testimonies in its Nemean Odes written in praise of pugilistic champions; and Isocrates, though he represents Alcibiades as despising the art, yet acknowledges that its professors were held in high estimation through Greece, and that those cities, where victorious pugilists were born, became illustrious from that circumstance;3 just as Bristol has been rendered immortal by the production of such heroes as Tom Crib, Harry Harmer, Big Ben, Dutch Sam, etc. etc.-Ammianus Marcellinus tells us how much that religious and pugnacious Emperor, Constantius, 1 Though wrestling was evidently the favourite sport of Hercules, we find him, in the Alcestes, just returned from a Bruising-match; and it is a curious proof of the superior consideration in which these arts were held, that for the lighter exercises, he tells us, horses alone were the reward, while to conquerors in the higher games of pugilism and wrestling, whole herds of cattle (with sometimes a young lady into the bargain) were given as prizes. delighted in the Set-tos, pugilum vicissim se conci- Head's English Rogue, which was published, I believe, dentium perfusorumque sanguine.—To these are add-in 1666, would be intelligible to a Greek of the present day; though it must be confessed that the Songs which both he and Dekker have given would puzzle even that Graiæ gentis decus, Caleb Baldwin himself. For instance, one of the simplest begins, ed still more flattering testimonies; such as that of Isidorus, who calls Pugilism virtus, as if par excellence; and the yet more enthusiastic tribute with which Eustathius reproaches the Pagans of having enrolled their boxers in the number of the Gods.-In short, the whole chapter is full of erudition and vous; -from Lycophron (whose very name smacks of pugilism) down to Boxiana and the Weekly Dispatch, not an author on the subject is omitted. Bing out, bien Morts, and toure and toure For all your duds are bing'd awast; To the cultivation, in our times, of the science of Pugilism, the Flash language is indebted for a considerable addition to its treasures. Indeed, so impossible is it to describe the operations of THE FANCY without words of proportionate energy to do justice to the subof the Set-to in the Iliad, pressing words into the serject, that we find Pope and Cowper, in their translation Secure this hand shall his whole frame confound, Mash all his bones, and all his body pound. Cowper, in the same manner, translates xos de ..... pntov, pash'd him on the cheek; and, in describing the wrestling-match, makes use of a term, now more properly applied to a peculiar kind of blow, ' of which Mendoza is supposed to have been the in ventor. Then his wiles So much for my Parallel between Ancient and Modern Pugilism. And now with respect to that peculiar language called Flash or St Giles's Greek, in which Mr Crib's Memorial and the other articles in the present work are written, I beg to trouble the reader with a few observations. As this expressive language was ori-vice which had seldom, I think, if ever, been enlisted into the ranks of poetry before. Thus Pope, ginally invented, and is still used, like the cipher of the diplomatists, for purposes of secrecy, and as a means of eluding the vigilance of a certain class of persons called, flashicè, Traps, or, in common language, Bowstreet Officers, it is subject, of course, to continual change, and is perpetually either altering the meaning of old words, or adding new ones, according as the great object, secrecy, renders it prudent to have recourse to such innovations. In this respect, also, it resembles the cryptography of kings and ambassadors, who by a continual change of cipher contrive to baffle the inquisitiveness of the enemy. But, notwithstanding the Protean nature of the Flash or Cant language, the greater part of its vocabulary has remained unchanged fear, extended to an unconscionable length, I cannot for centuries, and many of the words used by the Cant-help expressing my regret at the selection which Mr ing Beggars in Beaumont and Fletcher,3 and the Gipsics Crib has made of one of the Combatants introduced in Ben Jonson's Masque, 4 are still to be heard among into the imaginary Set-to that follows. the Gnostics of Dyot-street and Tothill-fields. To prig has already been exhibited, perhaps, usque ad nauis still to steal; to fib, to beat; lour, money; duds, seam,» before the Public; and, without entering into clothes;6 prancers, horses; bouzing-ken, an ale-house; the propriety of meddling with such a personage at all, cove, a fellow; a sow's baby, a pig; etc. etc. There are it is certain that, as a mere matter of taste, he ought also several instances of the same term, preserved with now to be let alone. All that can be alleged for Mr a totally different signification. Thus, to mill, which Crib is-what Rabelais has said in defending the moral was originally to rob, 7 is now to beat or fight; and the word rum, which in Ben Jonson's time, and even so late as Grose, meant fine and good, is now generally used for the very opposite qualities; as, « he's but a rum one, etc. Most of the Cant phrases in *Notwithstanding that the historian expressly says « pugilum, Lipsius is so anxious to press this circumstance into bis Account of the Ancient Gladiators, that he insists such an effusion of claret could only have taken place in the gladiatorial combat. But Lipsius never was at Moulsey Hurst. See his Saturnal. Sermon. lib. i, cap. 2. Origin. lib. xviii, c. 18. 3 In their amusing comedy of The Beggar's Bush. The Masque of the Gipsies Metamorphosed.-The Gipsy language, indeed, with the exception of such terms as relate to their own peculiar customs, differs but little from the regular Flash; as may be seen by consulting the Vocabulary subjoined to the Life of Bamfylde Moore Carew. 5 See the third chapter, 1st book of the History of Jonathan Wild, for an undeniable testimony of the great antiquity of Priggism. An angler for dads is thus described by Dekker: He carries a short staff in his hand, which is called a filch having in the nab or head of it, a ferme (that is to say a hole), into which, upon any piece of service, when he goes a filching, he putteth a hooke, of iron, with which booke he angles at a window in the dead of night for shirts, smockes, or any other linen or woollen.»-English Vil'anies. 7. Can they cant or mill? are they masters in their art -BEN JONSON. To mill, however, sometimes signified to kill. mill a bleating cheat, i. e. to kill a sheep. Thus, to Forgat not he, but on the ham behind Before I conclude this Preface, which has already, I That person notions of another kind of cattle-he knows no better." But for myself, in my editorial capacity, I take this opportunity of declaring, that, as far as I am concerned, the person in question shall henceforward be safe and inviolate; and, as the Covent Garden Managers said, when they withdrew their much-hiss'd elephant, this is positively the last time of his appearing on the stage. TOM CRIB'S MEMORIAL ΤΟ CONGRESS. MOST Holy, and High, and Legitimate squad, 1 A chopper is a blow, struck on the face with the back of the hand. Mendoza claims the honour of its invention, but unjustly; he certainly revived, and considerably improved it. It was practised long before our time-Broughton occasionally used it; and Slack, it also appears, struck the chopper in giving the return in many of his battles. Boxiana, vol. ii, p. 20, 2 Swell, a great man. In prison. The dab's in quod; the rogue is in prison. |