This is a fascinating study of Elizabethan rogues and vagabonds which draws much of its material from the actual pamphlets of the time, in particular the Conny-catching series of Robert Greene and the Caveat for Common Cursetors of Thomas Harman. Central and local records have also provided the author with relics of the age, such as Proctor's Licenses, forged passports, the London orders of 1517 for restraining beggars and vagabonds, and licenses for Jacobean gaming houses, from which he has been able to paint a vivid picture of an elaborately organized profession of roguery with a language of its own and a large number of well-defined methods and traditions.

Mr Aydelotte describes the Art of Begging employed by the vagrants and masterless men who roamed through the countryside at this time with a wealth of picturesque detail. He distinguishes between the 'Upright Men' who were strong enough to act as chiefs among their fellow vagabonds and the ordinary rogues; and deals with all the many vagabond types, the 'Abraham men', 'hookers', 'palliards' and 'counterfeit cranks', and their companions, the 'doxies' and 'bawdy baskets'. In another chapter he studies the art of conny-catching, and the endless devices of the London sharpers, dice-swindlers and cut-purses to swindle simple people of their money. Finally there is an account of the laws against vagabonds and their enforcement which includes an especially interesting discussion of the whipping campaign which began in 1569.

Contents

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I : ORIGINS

Size of the vagabond class

Enclosures and sheep-farming

The change from the mediaeval to the modern system of land tenure

The sixteenth-century literature of economic protest

The breaking up of the bands of feudal retainers

The dissolution of the monasteries

The question of gipsy origin

CHAPTER II : THE ART OF BEGGING

Traditional methods

Prevalence of indiscriminate charity

Licences to beg

Harman's twenty-four orders of vagabonds

Rufflers and upright men

Hookers or anglers

Rogues

Counterfeit cranks

Dommerers, palliards, and Abraham Men

Priggers of prancers

Counterfeiters of licences

Pedlars and tinkers

Minstrels

Jugglers

Movers of sedition and speakers of false rumours

Popish spies

CHAPTER III : LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS

Summary of legislative tendencies

1530-47 : Legislation

1530-47 : Enforcement of the laws

1547-72 : Legislation

1547-72 : Enforcement of the laws

1572-97 : Legislation

1572-97 : Enforcement of the laws

The poor laws of 1597 and 1601

Conditions at the end of the century

CHAPTER IV : THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING

The trustworthiness of the conny-catching pamphlets

The tribe of gulls

The haunts of the conny-catchers

The conny-catcher's busy season

The conny-catching 'laws'

Conny-catching proper

Cheating law

Vincent's law

The nips and foists

Crossbiting law

Petty thieves and brokers

High law

The spirit of Elizabethan roguery

CHAPTER V : LAWS AGAINST CONNY-CATCHING

Royal protection of 'unlawful games'

The patents of Thomas Cornwallis

Efforts to restrain the manufacture and sale of false dice

Patents for playing cards

Laws against pickpockets

Cozening versus stealing in law

CHAPTER VI : THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS

Influence of foreign rogue literature

Early trustworthy English rogue pamphlets

The Manifest Defection

Harman's Caueat

Greene's Conny-catching pamphlets

The fashion of exposing rogue life

The Groundworks of Conny-catching

The Defence of Conny-catching

Mihil Mumchance

Dekker's rogue pamphlets

Greenes Ghost and Martin Mark-all

Rid's Art of Iugling

Roguish lore in other books

The literary value of the rogue pamphlets

APPENDIX

A. DOCUMENTS

1. London orders of 1517 for restraining vagabonds and beggars (Journal, xi. 337)

2. Proclamation of Henry VIII against rogues and vagabonds, June 1530 (Bod. press-mark, Arch. F.C. 10,2)

3. John Bayker's letter to Henry VIII accounting for the multitude of vagabonds in the realm (S.P. Henry VIII, 141 : 134-5)

4. Proclamation of Henry VIII against the stews, April 13, 1546 (S.A. Proclamations, ii. 164)

5. Rogues in Harman's list whose names are found in official records, 1571-89

6. Letter from the Privy Council to the London Aldermen ordering searches for vagabonds, June 20, 1569 (Journal, xix. 171^b ff.)

7. Articles agreed upon by justices in Devon for supressing rogues and vagabonds, November 5, 1569 (Bod. MS. Rawl. B. 285, II verso–12)

8. Letter from the Privy Council to Shrewsbury ordering watches and searches for rogues and masterless men, July 30, 1571 (Shrewsbury Corporation Muniments, Petitions to the Bailiffs, No. 2,621)

9. Characteristic certificates of the punishment of vagabonds :
A. Ewellme, Oxon., August 251571 (D.S.P. Eliz., lxxx. 45)
B. Eccleshall, Stafford, August and September, 1571 (D.S.P. Eliz., lxxxi, 25, I)
C. Several hundreds in Cambridgeshire, August and September, 1571 (D.S.P. Eliz. lxxxiii. 36, v)

10. Table of searches, 1571-2

11. Order for search for false dice in London, 1598 (Repertory 24, fo, 349 ff.)

12. Letter about corrupt brokers in London, December 1, 1601 (Remembrancia, ii, 213)

13. A licence to keep a gaming-house in the time of James I (Petty Bag, Cert. Var., Bundle i)

14. Hext's letter, 1596 (British Museum, MS. Lansdowne, 81, Nos. 62 and 64)

B. PLAGIARISM IN ELIZABETHAN PAMPHLETS

Manifest Detection, sig. B₈ verso–C₁ verso

Mihil Mumchance, sig. B₄ verso, ff.

Dekker, Belman of London, 1608, sig E₃ verso

Rid, Art of Iugling, 1612, sig. C₄

INDEX