Edward Viles

Rogue literature is a literary genre that tells stories from the world of thieves and other criminals that was popular in England in the 16th and 17th centuries. The stories were mostly in a confessional form and full of vivid descriptions. Rogue literature is an important source in understanding the everyday life of the ordinary people and their language, and the language of thieves and beggars. This edition edited by Viles and Furnivall contains the seminal works in this genre.

The earliest piece is by John Awdeley: “The Fraternity of Vacabondes: As well as ruflyng Vacabondes, as of beggerly, of women as of men, of Gyrles as of Boyes, with their proper names and qualities: with a description of the crafty company of Couseners and Shifters: whereunto is also adjoined the order of Knaves. probably first published in 1561”.
It starts with a couple of poems one of which tells the reader that at a Sessions (local court of justice) a Vagabond was on trial and he traded the information for his release (they were often hanged) with the proviso that his name should not be made known or the Fraternity would have him killed.

Awdeley then lists those members of the Fraternity by their various trades with a brief description and so we learn about; An Abraham man, a Ruffler, A Prygman, A Whipjacke, A Frater, A Quire Bird, An Upright man, A Palliard, An Irish Toyle, Mortes and Doxies and some others. The next section is headed The Company of Cousoners and Shifters and there are three longer descriptions of some of the tricks that are used by the Fraternity to cheat people of money, goods and livestock.
My favourite one is ‘A Ring Faller’ where a con man or woman will approach a likely subject and in view of them will bend down and appear to pick a ring off the ground, they then approach the person and ask if the ring belongs to them; a conversation will develop which may be a dupe for a pickpocket or it may be an attempt to get a reward for finding the ring or selling the ring (which appears to be good quality gold). This trick is still practised in Paris on tourists as I found out last year. Back to Awdeley who continues with his order of Knaves: similar to the Fraternity of vagabonds, this is a list with short descriptions of how servants will cheat their masters.

The second and largest piece is Thomas Harman’s: “A caveat or warning for common cursetors vulgarly called Vagabonds” published in 1567, which has become the standard work. Thomas Harman acknowledges the previous publication by Awdeley and goes on to enrich and enhance it. He starts with a dedication to Lady Elisabeth the Countess of Shrewsbury and explains that it is his duty to acquaint her with the abominable, wicked, and detestable behaviour of all these rowsey ragged, rabblement of rakehells. Its tone is something like we might find today in the popular (gutter) press who claim to take the moral high ground when in fact mostly they aim to titillate their readers.

Harman takes some of Awdeley’s Fraternity and expands his descriptions of them and weaves in his own stories, They are by turns amusing, titillating and moralising and remind me very much of the more bawdy tales that you might find in Bocaccio’s Decameron. They are firmly based in villages around London and are valuable in themselves for providing a snapshot of street life in Elizabethan England. Thomas Harman is not content with telling his stories he also names and shames those involved concentrating on The Upright men, the Rogues and the Pallyards who he claims are the most notorious vagabonds. He declines to name the Mortes and Doxes (women) saying it is superfluous to name them; he could have done it, but it would make the book far too large. Harman has told his readers in his introduction that the vagabonds use a language of their own and he provides a short dictionary of their words and phrases and an example of a conversation between an Upright man and a Rogue

“Thus I conclude my bolde Beggars booke,
That all estates most playnely maye see,
As in a glasse well pollyshed to looke,
Their double demeaner in eche degree.
Their lyues, their language, their names as they be,
That with this warning their myndes may be warmed,
To amend their mysdeedes, and so lyue vnharmed.”

This edition then continues with Parson Habens (or Hyberdine’s) Sermon in Praise of Theives and Theivery and this is Viles and Furnivals description in their introduction :

“The third piece in the present volume is a larky Sermon in praise of Thieves and Thievery, the title of which (p. 93, below) happened to catch my eye when I was turning over the Cotton Catalogue, and which was printed here, as well from its suiting the subject, as from a pleasant recollection of a gallop some 30 years ago in a four-horse coach across Harford-Bridge-Flat, where Parson Haben (or Hyberdyne), who is said to have preached the Sermon, was no doubt robbed. My respected friend Goody-goody declares the sermon to be 'dreadfully irreverent;' but one needn't mind him. An earlier copy than the Cotton one turned up among the Lansdowne MSS, and as it differed a good deal from the Cotton text, it has been printed opposite to that.”

The final piece is The Groundworke of Conny Catching written some time after Thomas Harman’s Caveat and it is basically an introduction to Harman’s work and a couple more short stories.

Edward Viles and F J Furnivals edition of these 16th century texts was published in 1907. They have written an interesting and at times amusing introduction but with plenty of notes and additional material. There are additional notes at the end and an index of words and terms used, making the whole thing a bit of a gem for anybody interested in the 16th century. For me this was a delight and a four star read.… (altro)