A Conversation in Flash

[Jonathon Green]

George Thompson wrote:
>
>         Dialogue in a famous Five Point Crib.
> A Cockney pick-pocket enters, and calls out to the bar boy.
>         "Here, my tulip, can you patter flash?"
>         "Like a knife."
>         "Vell, then, vere are the larkies?"
>         "Rumbling the flat, upsides."
>         "'Ave they wing'd a pigeon?"
>         "No, when you don't mean it."
>         "Then pass the grammar to feather him quick; for the traps have been
> ogling the ken for the last half hour."
>         Whereon, Cockney polishes of[f] a small of max, while the boy goes
> upstairs with his message.
>         The Wag, November 30, 1839, p. 2, col. 4
>
>         crib: HDAS (sense 2a) *1823, 1848 U. S.  my notes: 1845
>         feather (v): not in HDAS, Cassell's 2nd
>         flash (n): HDAS *1673, &c.; 1805, 1840, U. S.
>         flat: HDAS *1753, &c.; 1791, &c., U. S.
>         grammar (n): not in HDAS or Cassell's 2nd
>         ken: HDAS *1739 - *1822, &c.; 1859 U. S.  GAT: 1827
>         knife:  not in HDAS or Cassell's 2nd
>         larkies: HDAS (sense 2) 1833
>         max: HDAS *1739 - *1822, &c.; 1859 U. S.
>         mean it: not in HDAS or Cassell's 2nd
>         ogling: HDAS *1682, &c; 1806, 1848 U. S.  GAT: 1834
>         patter (v) Cassell's 2nd late 18th C
>         pigeon: Cassell's 2nd late 16th C
>         rumbling (v): Cassell's 2nd (sense 1, to pick a pocket) early 19th C
>         smaller: Cassell's 2nd mid 19th C (U. S.)
>         trap: Cassell's 2nd (sense 2) 18th C
>         tulip: Cassell's 2nd mid 19th C
>         upsides: not in Cassell's 2nd
>         wing'd: forgot to look for this
>
> I don't know what the statement "No, when you don't mean it." means.
>
> GAT
>
>
>
>
More great stuff. Thanks. Some thoughts:

Partridge, _Dict. Underworld_, has _feather_, albeit as a noun, in
Alexander Smith's _History of the Highwaymen_ (1719-20): 'Whilst Stephen
was bargaining for Three Quarters of a Yard of Cloth [...], his
Companion had the Opportunity of taking the Feather, as Thieves call it,
out of a Pin in the Window.' Presumably this meant (EP fails actually to
define it) some form of stolen goods, perhaps, in context cloth.
_Feather_ vb. is not in the DU and I have not encountered it in the 15
months since I put Cassell revised 'to bed'. But here it would seem to
mean to 'take the booty', i.e. to rob the victim, in this context. It is
obviously pretty rare.

As for _knife_, my assumption is that this plays on _sharp_,
intelligent, perceptive,  with overtones of cunning.

'Pass the grammar' presumably means 'pass the word(s)'.

_When you don't mean it_ defeats me; it implies hesitancy in getting on
with the robbery, but whether it was a specific flash usuge, I cannot say.

_Upsides_ I haven't categorised as slang (perhaps erroneously).

Finally _wing_ I would have thought is not autonomous but merely using
the sportsman's _wing_, to shoot (but not kill) to make a play on flash
_pigeon_, a sucker.

JG

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