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

[Jonathan Lighter]

Perhaps the speaker is a minute performer in a Victorian flea circus.

JL

On Thu, Jan 19, 2017 at 9:13 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

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



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