I will be analysing The Examination of Mary Roberts (1613) with the purpose of analysing who used Cant and if it was a language or jargon. By the word jargon, I mean language, which is not official but is commonly used, also known as ‘slang’. The Examination of Mary Roberts which shows how Cant might have actually been used whereas Dekker’s piece The Vpright Cofe Canteth to the roague shows prejudice to Cant. The Act of Union (1536) stated that the English language was to be used for law and religion. Britain then went on to standardize its own English as shown by the emergence of dictionaries and grammar books thus resulting in an interest in non-standard languages such as Cant. Cant was first traced by the Old English Dictionary (OED) in a 1567 source. Cant is defined by the OED as “To speak in the whining or singsong tone used by beggars; to beg” (first introduced 1567), “To speak in the peculiar jargon or ‘cant’ of vagabonds, thieves, and the like” (introduced 1609),” To use the special phraseology or jargon of a particular class or subject” (introduced 1631). These three definitions alone show the evolution of how Cant was viewed as a rogue’s language to jargon.
The Examination of Mary Roberts is a transcribed court record - a paraphrased recording of a legal interrogation, thus meaning that only segments of oral-statement have been recorded as spoken. For the most part, where appropriate, words would be written in, as Dekker calls it, ‘upright’ English as was the standard for official documents in 1613 meaning that only words not understood were recorded as is. An example of this is “petty chapman” meaning according to OED a retail dealer (1553). However, it must be noted that words such as this might have been gener...
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...ssical Tradition,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol.34. No.2 (Apr. 1992), pp.301-330
Janet Sorensen, “Vulgar Tongues: Canting Dictionaries and the Language of the People in Eighteenth-Century Britain,” Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.37, No.3, Critical Networks (Spring, 2004), pp.435-454
Paul A Slack, “Vagrants and Vagrancy in England, 1598-1664,” The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol.27, No.3 (Aug. 1974), pp.360-379
Eric Wilson, “Plagues, Fairs, and Street Cries: Sounding out Society and Space in Early Modern London,” Modern Language Studies, Vol.25, No.3 (Summer, 1995), pp.1-42 (here p.22)
W. Ogwen Williams, “The Survival of the Welsh Language after the union of England and Wales: the first phase, 1536-1542,” Welsh History Review, Vol.2, no.1 (1964), pp.67-93
http://www.oed.com/ (accessed 24/12/2013)
Unpublished Secondary Sources
The plot of the book, Speak is that Melinda Sordino, a freshman at Merryweather High went to an end of the summer party with some of her friends. Things take a turn for the worst when a senior named Andy Evans sexually assaults her at the party without her friends knowing about it. Melinda is frightened, afraid, and does not know what to do so she calls 911 busting the party, and causing her friends and everyone at that school to hate her, even if they don’t know her.
Raffel, Burton. and Alexandra H. Olsen Poems and Prose from the Old English, (Yale University Press)Robert Bjork and John Niles,
Burnett, John. The Annals of Labour: Autobiographies of British Working-class People, 1820-1920. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1974.
Upham, A. H. (1913). English "femmes savantes" at the end of the seventeenth century. The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 12(2), 262-276.
The main topics for this week’s readings are generally themed around the birth of the public sphere during the eighteenth century with the advent of modernity and the discourse that surrounds it. Each author presents essentially the same themes and ideas on varying subject matter but does so from a different view point and through different stories.
Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, a 2011 book. 1629 - 1631. Print. The.
Kira L. S. Newman, “Shutt Up: Bubonic Plague and Quarantine in Early Modern England,” Journal of Social History, 3, (2012): 809-834
The City of Dreadful Delight starts with some cultural analysis of the historical background that helped to produce the social landscape of Victorian London. In discussing the transformation of London, Walkowitz argues for seeing more than merely a shift from one type of city to another but rather a conflicted layering of elite male spectatorship, the “scientific” social reform, and W. T. Stead's New Journalism. Here Walkowitz investigates the “Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon.” The “Maiden Tribute” consisted of a series of articles, authored by Stead and presented in the penny press, which exposed the sale of girls into prostitution. According to Walkowitz, these stories relied on the new scientific methods of social investigation, but the...
Napier, Elizabeth R. The Failure of Gothic: Problems of Disjunction in an Eighteenth-Century Literary Form. New York: OUP, 1987.
One of the many permutations that language has made is into what is collectively known as English. This particular tongue was brought to the British Isles in the Sixth Century CE by Northern Europeans or “Germanic” people. (Kemmer) It followed English colonists around the world, including areas in North America, which will be the subject of this essay.
Frame, R. (1995). The Political Development of the British Isles, 1100-1400. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cowie, Leonard W. “Plague and Fire London 1665-1666.” East Sussex: Wayland Publishers, 1970. 56-63. Print.
and Writers. 4th ed. Ed. John Schlib and John Clifford. Bedford. Boston: Bedford, 2009. 1526-1561. Print.
Tucker, Martin- ed. Moulton’s Library of Literary Criticism… Vol. I- The Beginnings to the Seventeenth Century New York, Frederick Publishing Co. 1966:
middle of paper ... ... Sommerville, J.P. Economy and Society in Early Modern England. "Health, mortality and popu- lation. "