1st Edition

The Elizabethan Underworld - a collection of Tudor and Early Stuart Tracts and Ballads Previously published 1930 and 1965

Edited By A. V. Judges Copyright 2002

    The Elizabethan Underworld collects together sixteen of the more important tracts from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries dealing with the lives and misdoings of thieves, rogues, and tricksters. For the most part the original authors were men of experience - watchmen, constables and those who drifted into the London underworld and learnt its tricks. A thorough introduction contributes a full historical background and outlines contemporary social contexts.

    Introduction; The Highway to the Spital-house (1535-6); A Manifest Detection of Dice-play (1552) GILBERT WALKER (?); The Fraternity of Vagabonds* (1561); A Caveat for Common Cursitors (1566); A Notable Discovery of Cozenage (1591); The Second Part of Cony-catching (1591); The Third Part of Cony-catching (1592); A Disputation between a He-cony-catcher and a She-cony catcher (1592); The Black Book's Messenger (1592); The Black Dog of Newgate (c- 1596); Luke Hutton's Lamentation (1596); The Testament of Laurence Lucifer; The Bellman of London*; Lantern and Candlelight* (1608); O per se O (1612); Martin Markall, Beadle of Bridewell (1610); The Counter's Commonwealth (1617); The Song of a Constable (1626)

    Biography

    A. V. Judges