Cap'n Johnson's Pyrate Rhetorick

[Jonathan Lighter]

Captain Charles Johnson (formerly identified as Daniel Defoe with an
eyepatch and parrot) published _A General History of the Robberies and
Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates_ in 1724, with a final revision four
years later:

Johnson's sources are elusive, but here's how he represents the discourse of
Pyrate Cap'n William Fly (? - 1726)
"Look ye, Captain _Atkinson_,  it is not that we care a T--d for your
Company, G-d d--n ye; G-d d--n my Soul, not a T--d by
G-d, and that's fair; but G-d d--n ye, and G-d's B---d and W---ds, if you
dont act like an honest Man, and offer to play us any Rogues Tricks by G-d,
and G-d sink me, I'll blow your Brains out, G-d d--n me if I dont....[B]---d
and W---ds, you dog...."

(1728, II, pp. 235-36).

JL

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