(Cant Dictionary) | The compleat cant, (Cant Dictionary) | The compleat cant

(Cant Dictionary)
B.E., Gent. A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew, In it Several Tribes, of Gypsies, Beggers, Thieves, Cheats, &c. London: Printed for W. Hawes, P. Gilbourne, and W. Davis, [1699?]

8vo (172 x 102 mm). Title within double-ruled border, text in double columns, publisher's 4-page advertisement after A3; lacks A4 (blank), preliminaries browned, some foxing and spotting, most pronounced in quires F–H and M, printing flaw on M2. Nineteenth-century calf, the spine gilt in 6 compartments, marbled endpapers; extremities rubbed.

First edition of the first comprehensive dictionary of slang. Another edition appeared that year (no priority) issued with the date of 1699 included in the imprint (see ESTC R171889). According to Partridge's History of Slang, it is "[t]he most complete glossary of cant to have appeared by the end of the 17th century" (p. 62).

"This dictionary is perhaps the most important dictionary of slang ever printed, since it had such an influence on later compilations … Nothing is known of B.E., gent. From his dictionary one gathers that he was an antiquary. Some of his words bear no relation to slang or cant, but merely gratify his whim for curiosa … The New Canting Dictionary, Bacchus and Venus, The Scoundrel's Dictionary, the canting dictionary appended to Nathan Bailey's Dictionary, Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue—all are based on B.E. gent." (Burke, The Literature of Slang, p. 65).

REFERENCE:
ESTC R4112 (citing Wing E4); Wing E5

PROVENANCE:
John Malcolm MacCallum (partially effaced signature dated 1893 on flyleaf)

Condition Report:
Condition as described in catalogue entry.

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