Aha!! Interesting point, Michael. Though there's actually relatively
little cant in the Newgate Calendar itself, unless you go back to Captain
Alexander Smith in 1720, who has a Thieves' Glossary, and Grammar. But I
think that drops out in the later editions.
(I'm currently trying to disentangle the Knapp and Baldwin texts, assuming
that there are, when you eliminate simple variations in titles, three
distinct versions.)
I'll have to look out for the Balzac intro -- should be getting
Heppenstall's Newgate Reflections in a day or so.
Thanks!!
Robin
----- Original Message -----
From: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, January 10, 2011 4:48 AM
Subject: Rayner Heppenstall
At some later date he did a sprightly translation of Balzac's A Harlot High
and Low (Splendeurs Et Miseres Des Courtisanes) for Penguin Classics, I
think that's still in print. The introduction discusses thieves' argot,
evidently in the light of his Newgate Calendar work.
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