Words pockets (4 Ergebnisse)

Zustand: Good. Pages intact with minimal writing/highlighting. The binding may be loose and creased. Dust jackets/supplements are not included. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good.

Zustand: New. In English.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - The Scoundrel's Dictionary was first published in 1754, in a rough-and-ready pocket edition designed for practical use, the product of a time of rising crime, when criminals were viewed as folk heroes. Despite the romantic framing story provided on the title page, however, the text is largely derived from Shirley's The Triumph of Wit (1688), and the cant entries in B. E.'s A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew (1699). All the same, The Scoundrel's Dictionary has its own charms, having had presumed contact with the beggars; its studious predecessors were, by contrast, intended for the diversion of the middle class, and were designed for consultation, or found only, in libraries. The volume is also more than simply a dictionary, since it contains a number of expository essays on the types of person who used the cant lexicon, when and for what purposes it was used, how its users were inducted into gangs, their methods of operation, and so on, plus a collection of songs, both in cant and in plain English translation. Since so many copies are thought to have been destroyed in a great fire, the original 18th-century edition is extremely rare, with only one having ever appeared at auction since 1976. …

First (and only) edition. 8vo, pp. 32; 19th century half red morocco, gilt-lettered spine, new blue cloth folding box with leather label. The Huth - Slater - Brett-Smith copy, with the Huth bookplate. Despite the romantic framing story provided on the title-page, the text is largely derived from Shirley's The Triumph of Wit (1688), and the cant entries in B.E.'s A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew (1699). Perhaps the gang member was carrying one of these books, or was newly initiated and required a ready translation of his confederates' jargon? The Scoundrel's Dictionary nevertheless has its own charms. A product of a time of rising crime, when criminals were often viewed as popular culture heroes, its rough-and-ready appearance and pocket size fit it for practical or street use while its studious predecessors would have been more likely to be consulted or encountered in a library. It was a source acknowledged by Grose and it's rare, with only a single copy appearing at auction (that one twice) since 1976. Alston IX, 322, "An abridged version of B.E.'s dictionary"; Burke, The Literature of Slang, p. 75, "Reprints the section devoted to canting and canting songs from The Triumph of Wit, 1688;" Coleman, A History of Cant and Slang Dictionaries I, pp. 68-69; not in the Cordell Collection; Kennedy 11895; no mention of the book in Partridge's Slang Today and Yesterday; Starnes and Noyes, The English Dictionary from Cawdrey to Johnson, 1604-1755, "This book, often called the rarest of the cant dictionaries because so many copies are thought to have been lost in a great fire, is .a reprint of Part III of The Triumph of Wit and hence another descendant of The Canting Academy. Whereas The Triumph of Wit was apparently intended for the diversion of the middle class, however, this dictionary seems to have had some contact with the beggars. At any rate it concludes with an unusual plea for charity to honest beggars." ESTC locates 12 copies (Folger, N.Y. Public, Newberry, LC and UCLA in the U.S.).…