Random Cant of the Day
I've had my head down for various reasons, mainly writing related, but others as well. However, I feel I should still try to be posting something here now and again, if for no other reason than to assure people that, yes, I still have a pulse.
To that end, I am going to take an easy out and combine work and updates. With that in mind, I give you:
Random Cant of the Day:
Fawney/Fawny*: A ring used in the 'lay' or dodge of ring-dropping; any finger-ring (1781)
Ring-Dropping* (ca. 1720) - Likely similar to Awdeley's** ring-faller (ca. 1561), which is "he that getteth fayre copper rings, very fayre gylded, and walketh up and down the streets, til he spieth some...simple body whom he thinketh he may deceave,and so goeth a lyttle before him...and letteth fall on of these ringes, which when the party that cometh after spieth and taketh it up, he having and eye backward, crieth halfe part", [after which the con man & mark retire to a tavern or inn, where the con eventually gets the mark to pay him a 'fair price' for half of the ring. There are variants, where the con may palm an identical gold ring in case the mark insists on the value being confirmed, but regardless, in the end the person is left with a worhtless gilded copper band while the con walks away with a pocket full of ready.]
[Bracketed material] = my summary
* = A Dictionary of the Underworld, Eric Partridge, Wordsworth Editions, 1989.
** = The Fraternity of Vagabonds, John Awdeley, in Rogues, Vagabonds & Sturdy Beggars, ed. Arthur F. Kinney, Univ. of Mass. Press, 1990.
To that end, I am going to take an easy out and combine work and updates. With that in mind, I give you:
Random Cant of the Day:
Fawney/Fawny*: A ring used in the 'lay' or dodge of ring-dropping; any finger-ring (1781)
Ring-Dropping* (ca. 1720) - Likely similar to Awdeley's** ring-faller (ca. 1561), which is "he that getteth fayre copper rings, very fayre gylded, and walketh up and down the streets, til he spieth some...simple body whom he thinketh he may deceave,and so goeth a lyttle before him...and letteth fall on of these ringes, which when the party that cometh after spieth and taketh it up, he having and eye backward, crieth halfe part", [after which the con man & mark retire to a tavern or inn, where the con eventually gets the mark to pay him a 'fair price' for half of the ring. There are variants, where the con may palm an identical gold ring in case the mark insists on the value being confirmed, but regardless, in the end the person is left with a worhtless gilded copper band while the con walks away with a pocket full of ready.]
[Bracketed material] = my summary
* = A Dictionary of the Underworld, Eric Partridge, Wordsworth Editions, 1989.
** = The Fraternity of Vagabonds, John Awdeley, in Rogues, Vagabonds & Sturdy Beggars, ed. Arthur F. Kinney, Univ. of Mass. Press, 1990.