Lexicon Balatronicum. A DICTIONARY OF Buckish Slang, University Ait, AND PICK POCKET ELOQUENCE. Compiled originally by Captain Grose. AND NOW CONSIDERABLY ALTERED AND ENLARGED, WITH THE MODERN CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS, BY A MEMBER OF THE WHIP CLUB. ASSISTED BY Hell-Fire Dick, and James Gordon, Esqrs. of Cambridge; and William LONDON: PRINTED FOR C. CHAPPEL, Pall-Mall; SOLD BY J.JOHNSTON, CHEAPSIDE; GODDARD, PALL PREFACE. THE merit of Captain Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue has been long and universally acknowledged. But its circulation was confined almost exclusively to the lower orders of society: he was not aware, at the time of its compilation, that our young men of fashion would at no very distant period be as distinguished for the vulgarity of their jargon as the inhabitants of Newgate; and he therefore conceived it superfluous to incorporate with his work the few examples of fashionable slang that might occur to his observation. : But our Jehus of rank have a phraseology not less peculiar to themselves, than the dis 1 ciples of Barrington : for the uninitiated to understand their modes of expression, is as impossible as for a Buxton to construe the Greek Testament. To sport an Upper Benjamin, and to swear with a good grace, are qualifications easily attainable by their cockney imitators; but without the aid of our additional definitions, neither the cits of Fish-street, nor the boors of Brentford would be able to attain the language of whippism. We trust, therefore, that the whole tribe of second-rate Bang ups, will feel grateful for our endeavour to render this part of the work as complete as possible. By an occasional reference to our pages, they may be initiated into all the peculiarities of language by which the man of spirit is distinguished from the man of worth. They may now talk bawdy before their papas, without the fear of detection, and abuse their less spirited companions, who prefer a good dinnerat home to a glorious up-shot in the highway, without the hazard of a cudgelling. |