Part 5 A History of the Cries of London

Part 5

Fine Venice-gla.s.ses,--no chrystal more clear, Of all forms and fashions buy gla.s.ses here, Black pots for good ale I also do cry; Come therefore quickly before I pa.s.s by."

In the same collection, is a series of three plates, "Part of the Cries in London," evidently belonging to the same set, though only one has got a t.i.tle. Each plate contains thirty-six criers, with the addition of a princ.i.p.al "Crier" in the centre. These were evidently executed abroad, as late, perhaps, as the reign of Charles II. No. 1 (with the t.i.tle page) is ornamented in the centre with the "Rat-Catcher," carrying an emblazoned banner of rats, and attended by a boy. The leather investment of the rat-catcher of the present day is a pleasant memorial of the banner of the past. Beneath the rat-catcher, the following lines occur:--

"Hee that wil have neither Ratt nor Mowssee Lett him pluck of the tillies And set fire of his hows."

Proving, evidently that the rat-catcher courted more to his banner than his poetry. Then follow the thirty-six cries, some of which, it will be seen, are extremely curious. The names are given beneath the cuts, but without any verse or peculiarity of cry.

Cooper Ende of Golde Olde Dublets Blackinge man Tinker Pippins Bui a Matte Cooles Chimnie swepes Bui Brumes Camphires Cherry ripe Alminake c.o.o.nie skine Mussels Cabeches Kitchen stuff Gla.s.ses c.o.c.kels Hartti chaks Mackrill Oranges, Lemens Lettice Place Olde Iron Aqua vitae Pens and Ink Olde Bellows Herrings Buy any Milke Piepin Pys Osters Shades Turneps Rosmarie Baie Onions.

"Haie ye any work for John Cooper?" is the t.i.tle of one of the Martin Marprelate pamphlets. "Haie ye ani gold ends to sell?" is mentioned as a "cry," in "Pappe with a Hatchet" (_cir._ 1589). "Camphires," means Samphires. The "Alminake" man has completely gone, and "Old Dublets" has degenerated into "Ogh Clo," a "cry" which teased Coleridge for a time, and occasioned a ludicrous incident, which we had reserved for a place somewhat later in our history, had not "Old Dublets" brought it, not inopportunely, to mind. "The other day," said Coleridge, "I was what you would call _floored_ by a Jew. He pa.s.sed me several times crying out for old clothes, in the most nasal and extraordinary tone I ever heard. At last I was so provoked, that I said to him, 'Pray, why can't you say 'old clothes' in a plain way, as I do?' The Jew stopped, and looking very gravely at me, said in a clear and even accent, 'Sir, I can say 'old clothes' as well as you can; but if you had to say so ten times a minute, for an hour together, you would say _Ogh Clo_ as I do now;' and so he marched off." Coleridge was so confounded with the justice of the retort that he followed and gave him a shilling--the only one he had.

The princ.i.p.al figure on the second plate is the "Bellman," with dog, bell, halberd, and lanthorns. His "cry" is curious, though we have had it almost in the same form before, at page 56:--

"Mayds in your Smocks, Looke Wel to your lock--your fire And your light, and G.o.d Give you good night. At One a Clock."

The cries around him deserve transcription:--

Buy any Shrimps Buy some Figs Buy a Tosting Iron Lantorne candellyht Buy any Maydes The Water bearer Buy a whyt Pot Bread and Meate Buy a Candelsticke Buy any Prunes Buy a Washing ball Good Sasages Buy a Purs Buy a dish a Flounders Buy a Footestoole Buy a fine Bowpot Buy a pair a Shoes Buy any Garters Featherbeds to dryue Buy any Bottens Buy any Whiting maps Buy any Tape Worcestershyr Salt Ripe Damsons Buy any Marking Stones The Bear bayting Buy any blew Starch Buy any Points New Hadog Yards and Ells Buy a fyne Brush Hote Mutton Poys New Sprats new New Cod new Buy any Reasons P. and Gla.s.ses to mend

On the third plate, the princ.i.p.al figure is the "Crier," with his staff and keys:--

"O yis, any man or woman that Can tell any tydings of a little Mayden Childe of the age of 24 Yeares. Bring worde to the cryer, And you shal be pleased for Your labor And G.o.d's blessinge."

The figures surrounding the Common Crier are in the same style of art, and their cries characteristic of bygone times:--

Buy any Wheat Buy al my Smelts Quick Periwinckels Rype Chesnuts Payres fyn White Redish whyt Buy any Whyting Buy any Bone lays I ha' rype Straberies Buy a Case for a Hat Birds and Hens Hote Podding Pyes Buy a Hair Lyne Buy any Pompeons Whyt Scalions Rype Walnuts Fyn Potatos fyn Hote Eele Pyes Fresh Cheese and Creame Buy any Garlick Buy a longe Brush Whyt Carots whyt Fyne Pomgranats Buy any Russes Hats or Caps to dress Wood to cleave Pins of the maker Any sciruy Gra.s.s Any Cornes to pick Buy any Parsnips Hot Codlinges hot Buy all my Soales Good Marroquin Buy any Coc.u.mber New Thornebacke Fyne Oate Cakes.

The only crier in the series who has a horse and cart to attend him is the Worcestershire salt-man. Salt is still sold from carts in poor and crowded neighbourhoods.

We have been somewhat surprised in not finding a single Thames waterman among the criers of London; but the series was, perhaps, confined to the streets of London, and the watermen were thought to belong altogether to the stairs leading to their silent highway. Three of their cries have given t.i.tles to three good old English comedies, "Northward, ho!"

"Eastward, ho!" and "Westward, ho!" But our series of cries is still extremely incomplete. Every thing in early times was carried and cried, and we have seen two rare prints of old London Cries not to be found in the lists already enumerated. One is called "_Clove Water, Stomock Water_," and the other "_Buy an new Booke_." Others may still exist. In the Duke of Devonshire's collection of drawings, by Inigo Jones, are several cries, drawn in pen-and-ink, for the masques at court in the reigns of James I. and Charles I.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS.]

In Thomas Heywood's, "_The Rape of Lucrece_, a True Roman Tragedy, acted by Her Majestie's Servants at the _Red-Bull_, 1609," is the following long list of LONDON CRIES, but called for the sake of the dramatic action of the scene, "_Cries of Rome_," which was the common practice with the old dramatists, Rome being the canting name of London. Robert Greene, in his "_Perimedes the Blacksmith_, 1588," when he wished to criticise the London _Theatre_ at Sh.o.r.editch, talks of the _Theatre in Rome_; also in his "_Never too Late_, 1590," when he talks of the London actors, he pretends only to speak of Roscius and the actors of _Rome_. In the pedlar's French of the day Rome-vyle--or ville--was London, and Rome-mort the Queen [Elizabeth]. There is some humour in the cla.s.sification, and if the cries were well imitated by the singer, the ballad--or as it would then be called "_jig_"--is likely to have been extremely popular in its day.

THE CRIES OF ROME [_i.e._ London.]

Thus go the cries in _Rome's_ fair town, First they go up street, and then they go down, Round and sound all of a colour, Buy a very fine marking stone, marking stone, Round and sound all of a colour; Buy a very fine marking stone, marking stone.