A CURSORY HISTORY OF SWEARING.

 

 

A
CURSORY
HISTORY OF SWEARING.

 

BY

JULIAN SHARMAN.

 

“Ha! this fellow is worse than me; what, does he swear with pen and ink?”—The Tatler, No. 13.

 

 

LONDON:
J. C. NIMMO AND BAIN,
14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C.
1884.

 

 


[Pg v]

CONTENTS.

 PAGE
CHAPTER I.
At the Scufflers’ Club—A stranger at the gates—A somnolent post-office—The bestmen in London—A sing-song—“Damn their eyes!”—“Qui s’excuses’accuse”—The philosophy of swearing—A retrospect—“Whenthat I was and a little tiny boy”1
 
CHAPTER II.
The son of discord—Origin of swearing—Decline of lying as an art—Growth of swearing asa science—The military oath—Religious oath—John the Marshall—Fustian oaths—Legislationbegins—“Moralité des Blasphémateurs”—George Fox and Margaret Fell—Oathof the King-Maker—Oath of the Bear-garden22
 
CHAPTER III.
“Odd’s bodikins”—In Socrates’ thinking-shop—The Britishshibboleth—Don Juan—Beaumarchais—Parny—Joan of Arc a satirist of swearing—LaHire—Corbleu et Cie.—“Jarnicoton”—“Μὰ τὸν”—‘Juronsde Cadillac’—Little King Goddam—Sir John Harrington—‘Amendsfor Ladies’—“Don’t care a damn”38
[Pg vi]
 
CHAPTER IV.
Why has a dog a bad name?—Canine swearing—“Jarnichien!”—The cast of thedie—Dog oath of Socrates—A nation of swearers—Aristophanes—The Rhodiancabbage—“Mehercule”—‘Ship of Fools’—Amenitiesof Roman swearing60
 
CHAPTER V.
Mediæval swearing—The monastic teaching—Cleric and lay—Robert Crowley—Mysteryof the five wounds—“God’s bread!”—In a Tuscan studio—Stephen Hawes—ThomasBecon—‘Miroir du Monde’—‘Handlyng Sinne’—Chaucer’soaths—Plantagenet swearing—“Ventre Saint Gris”—A royalscapegrace—“Bismillah!”77
 
CHAPTER VI.
The genius of antiquity—A study in dust and cobwebs—The why and the wherefore ofswearing—A swearing corps d’élite—“Swear me, Kate, like alady”—The freemasonry of swearing—Lord Thurlow—Sir ThomasMaitland—“By jingo!”99
 
CHAPTER VII.
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