[Ads-l] Query: Slang "insect promenade"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Gerald: You have probably seen this, but it might be interesting to
other readers. John Stephen Farmer carefully annotated the poem, but,
oddly, he did not provide an annotation for "insect promenade".

Year: 1896
Title: Musa Pedestris: Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang
Rhymes (1536-1896)
Author: John Stephen Farmer

https://books.google.com/books?id=_zM1AQAAIAAJ&q=promenade#v=snippet&

Below is a rhyming slang interpretation for "insects" but it does not
work well for the singular "insect", and it may be irrelevant.

Year: 2015
Title: Little Book of Cockney Rhyming Slang
Author: Sid Finch

[Begin excerpt]
Insects and Ants – Underpants.
[End excerpt]

Garson


On Thu, Jan 19, 2017 at 7:36 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu> wrote:
> A poem titled "The Rhyme of the Rusher" (1892) is marked by rhyming slang
>
> and cant. One particular item is unclear to me: "insect promenade."  What in
>
> the world does that mean?
>
>
> The relevant lines are (and btw, mince pies = eyes]:
>
> And I smiled as I closed my two mince pies
>
> In my insect promenade.
>
>
> Any help would be much appreciated.
>
>
> Gerald Cohen
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org