OED antedating -- cigarette

Wed Mar 24 14:09:27 UTC 2010

The OED has for "CIGARETTE -- 1. a. A small cigar made of a little
finely-cut tobacco rolled up in thin paper, tobacco-leaf, or maize-husk", a
first citation from 1842.

There is, however, an earlier occurrence, in _The sonne of the rogue, or,
The politick theefe_ (now Englished by W.M) in 1638.

_The Sonne of the Rogue_ gives a list of various orders of thieves:

"For the first are the Robbers, next the Stafadours, then the Grumets, after
these the Hobgoblins, then follow the wooll-drawers, the Mallets follow
them, and last the Apostles, Cigarets, Cutpurses, and Caterers."  (p. 246)

_The Sonne of the Rogue_ is a translation of Carlos García, _La desordenada
codicia de los bienes agenos_ (1619) [where the word given as "Cigarets" in
English is "cigareros", p. 338], either directly, or via the French of Vital
d'Audiguier in _L'Antiquite des larrons_ (1621) ["Cigarets" <=> "Cigareres",
p. 238].

So far so good -- "Cigarets" in English in 1638 would seem to refer to a
tobacco product, as suggested by the Spanish ("cigareros") or French
("Cigareres") terms which it translates.

Indeed, the OED, when it notices "stafador", cites _The Sonne of the Rogue_:

<<
OED:   stafador -- Obs. rare -1.

[ad. Sp. estafador, agent-n. f. estafar to swindle.]

    An impostor.

1638 W. M. Garcia's Sonne Rogue 246 For the first are the Robbers, next the
Stafadours, then the Grumets, after these the Hobgoblins. Ibid. 249 A
Robber, Staffador or Grumet.
>>

The problem here is that the OED definition of "stafador", drawing on the
Spanish derivation of the word, is simply wrong, since the term as used in
Garcia and as translated by W.M. refers not to an impostor but to a
completely different kind of criminal:

In "Chap. VII.  Of the difference and variety of Theeves", we find:

". there are other Theeves who steale openly and without maske: who,
although they are not so many in number as the former, are notwithstanding
moe, and their differences are as many as there are inventions to steale,
which being redacted into a shorter number, are divided into Robbers,
Staffadours, drawers of Wooll, Grunets, Apostles Cigarets, Dacians, Mallets
Cut-purses, Satyrs, Devont, and Governours of the House."  (pp. 124-5)

["Devont" has a turned letter, and should read, "Devout" - see p. 133.]

"Staffadours" is expanded slightly later:

"Your Staffadours are a second sort of robbers, little differing from the
former, though not so bloudy; those goe calmely into the house of some
Marchant, and not finding him there, seeke for him at great leasure ... and
shewing him a Dagger demandeth a hundreth crownes, brought to such a place,
such a day, and if you doe it not, you shall die for it ... " (pp. 128-129)

So, rather than being an imposter, in this context a Staffadour is a
criminal who demands money with menaces.

So much (for the moment) for Staffadours.

In a similar fashion, a Cigaret, as well as being a tobacco product, is a
cant term for a kind of criminal:

"Those whom they call Cigarets, have for their particular office to haunt
Churches feasts and publique assemblies, at which they cut off the halfe of
a gowne, the quarter of a jumpe and finally whatsoever they finde, for all
these make money." (p. 133)

Finally, we have Grumets, which the OED quite rightly notes, under
"grumett", is:  "1. A ship's boy; a cabin-boy; the boy required to form part
of the crew of every ship formerly provided by the Cinque Ports."
(Citations from 1229.)

It is also, of course, the cant term for yet another type of criminal:

"The Grumets take their name from the likenesse that they have to those
young boyes in ships, who clime up with great nimblenesse, by the tacklings
to the top of the Mast; and the sailers call them Cats or Grumets.  Those
that beare this name steale by night, climing up lightly, by a ladder of
ropes, at the end of which they have two little hookes of iron, to the end
that throwing them up to the window, it may catch hold there and they easily
get up and empty the house."    (pp. 131-132)

So much for the original appearance of Staffadours, Grumets, and Cigarets in
English in 1638.

The three gentlemen continue unchanged when _The Sonne of the Rogue_  of
1638 reappears as _Lavernae, or, The Spanish gipsy_ (now in English by
W.M,) in 1650.

[Curiously, the original 1638 "London: Printed by I.D. for Michael Sparkes
and are to [be] sold in Green-Arbor" on the title page has now become in
1650, "London, Printed not in Newgate".]

When A Penitent Highwayman comes to pen his memoirs in _The Devil's Cabinet
Laid Open_ in 1657, Staffadours and Grumets are still present, but Cigarets
have dropped by the wayside:

"... every novice is first tried before he is imployed, and then according
to his inclination and ability, he is put in office of a stafadours, grumet,
hobgobling, or mullets, that are such as are conveyed into mens houses in
packs or hogsheads, or the like ."  (p.39)

"... the Robbers bear always a glove hanging and made fast by one finger,
the Cheats button their dublets by intercession one buttoned and the next
unbuttoned, the Stafadours always stroke their mustaches every three or four
steps, the Cutpurses have a little white mark in their hat-bands, &c."  (p.
40)

This is the final appearance in English of Staffadours and Grumets.  When
the Penitent Highwayman re-emerges in _The Catterpillers Of this Nation
Anatomized_ in 1659, only the first twelve chapters of his tale are
reproduced, terminating before Staffadours and Grumets are mentioned.

To summarise:  Staffadours, Grumets, and Cigarets first appear in English in
1634, and all three reappear in 1650.  In 1657, only Staffadours and Grumets
are still present, and this for the last time.

Did I mention the problem with cutpurses?  Oh well, why not.

The OED has: " cutpurse, cut-purse -- 'One who steals by the method of
cutting purses, a common practice when men wore their purses at their
girdles' (J.); hence, a pickpocket, thief, robber; also fig." -- with a
lonely
citation from Langland in 1362, then a sequence of citations from 1530 till
1824.

The problem with this is that actual cutpurses and pickpockets were
originally quite distinct varieties of criminal (and neither were robbers).
After a certain point, the term "cutpurse" came to refer simply to a
pickpocket, before vanishing, leaving only pickpockets.  The difficulty is
when this shift took place in history rather than in lexis.  Robert Greene
in his coney-catching pamphlets makes much play of the difference between
"nips" (or cutpurses) and "foists" (or pickpockets), but it's possible that
Greene is reflecting not life but literature when he writes in the 1590s.
Certainly, in a description of a school for thieves kept by one Wotton and
written in 1585, the activities described, whether the persons doing them
are called cutpurses or pickpockets, in neither case involves the use of a
knife to cut the purse.  The purse is picked.  (Pickpurse, of course, being
yet *another term for this somewhat ambiguous activity.)

At least, in 1638, _The Sonne of the Rogue_ is clear as to what a cutpurse
does:

Cut-purses - "All their studie consisteth in thrusting their hand in the
pocket of whom they approach, and cunningly to draw his Purse from him (he
not perceiving it) with all that hee hath in it."  (pp. 138-9)

Robin

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