Chapter I: Front Matter

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Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.)

A CURSORY HISTORY OF SWEARING.

A CURSORY HISTORY OF SWEARING.

BY JULIAN SHARMAN.

"Ha! this fellow is worse than me; what, does he
swear with pen and ink?"--_The Tatler_, No. 13.

LONDON:
J. C. NIMMO AND BAIN,
14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C.
1884.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER I.

At the Scufflers' Club--A stranger at the gates--A somnolent
post-office--The best men in London--A sing-song--"Damn their
eyes!"--"Qui s'excuse s'accuse"--The philosophy of swearing--A
retrospect--"When that I was and a little tiny boy" 1

CHAPTER II.

The son of discord--Origin of swearing--Decline of lying as an
art--Growth of swearing as a science--The military oath--
Religious oath--John the Marshall--Fustian oaths--Legislation
begins--"Moralite des Blasphemateurs"--George Fox and Margaret
Fell--Oath of the King-Maker--Oath of the Bear-garden 22

CHAPTER III.

"Odd's bodikins"--In Socrates' thinking-shop--The British
shibboleth--Don Juan--Beaumarchais--Parny--Joan of Arc a
satirist of swearing--La Hire--Corbleu et Cie.--"Jarnicoton"--
"[Greek: Ma ton]"--'Jurons de Cadillac'--Little King Goddam--
Sir John Harrington--'Amends for Ladies'--"Don't care a damn" 38

CHAPTER IV.

Why has a dog a bad name?--Canine swearing--"Jarnichien!"--The
cast of the die--Dog oath of Socrates--A nation of swearers--
Aristophanes--The Rhodian cabbage--"Mehercule"--'Ship of
Fools'--Amenities of Roman swearing 60

CHAPTER V.

Mediaeval swearing--The monastic teaching--Cleric and lay--
Robert Crowley--Mystery of the five wounds--"God's bread!"--In
a Tuscan studio--Stephen Hawes--Thomas Becon--'Miroir du
Monde'--'Handlyng Sinne'--Chaucer's oaths--Plantagenet
swearing--"Ventre Saint Gris"--A royal scapegrace--"Bismillah!" 77

CHAPTER VI.

The genius of antiquity--A study in dust and cobwebs--The why
and the wherefore of swearing--A swearing _corps d'elite_--
"Swear me, Kate, like a lady"--The freemasonry of swearing--
Lord Thurlow--Sir Thomas Maitland--"By jingo!" 99

CHAPTER VII.

A bank of swearing--Legislation at work--"The sweirer's and
the Devill"--Aberdeen town records--Across the border--Before
the footlights--'Magnetic Lady'--The wits--Colman the
younger--A swearing bureau--Quarter Sessions--Statute of
William and Mary--Convictions--A carnival of swearing 115

CHAPTER VIII.

A saviour of society--Joseph Addison--A tradesman of the last
century--A clerical apologist--Swearing in earnest and at
play--An explanation offered--Blue laws of Connecticut--
Bobadil--'The Rivals'--'Covent Garden weeded'--Brantome's
oaths--Eccentricities of swearing--"Old Harry"--"The
dickens"--"The deuce"--"Le diable de Biterne" 139

CHAPTER IX.

Utilitarian view of swearing--One touch of nature--The
Shandean method--Code of Ernulphus--"Sacre froc d'Habacuc"--
Mr. William Barley--Philosophy of imprecation--"Bloody"--In
the Low Countries--'The Man of Mode'--Swift without his
waistcoat--Sanglant--Retrospect and ending 171

APPENDIX 193

A CURSORY HISTORY OF SWEARING.