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1601Shakespeare, Hamlet
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1603Shakespeare, Othello
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1605Letter about Guy Fawkes
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1607Newsbook
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1608Shakespeare, King Lear
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1608English arrives in North America
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1609Shakespeare's Sonnets
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1611King James Bible
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1612Webster, The Duchess of Malfi
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1613First English dictionary
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1616The Globe Theatre
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1623Shakespeare's First Folio
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1633John Donne, Poetry
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1640Jonson, The English Grammar
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1646Areopagitica by John Milton
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1649Confessions of Charles I's executioner
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1650Advert for a quack doctor
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1650Marvell, 'An Horatian Ode'
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1653Early A - Z of London
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1660Samuel Pepys' Diary
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1662Theatrical figures
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1665Coffee houses
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1665A cure for the Plague
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1666The Fire of London
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1667John Milton's Paradise Lost
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1674Criminal slang
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1677Aphra Behn, The Rover
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1678Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress
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1679Habeas Corpus Act
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1684Advert for a Rhinoceros
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1693Account of a shipwreck
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Intro
The word cant refers to the secret language spoken by professional thieves and beggars. The Canting Academy, or Devils Cabinet opened, by Richard Head, was first published in 1673. It records the customs, phrases and songs of urban villains and scoundrels. The book contains one of England's first dictionaries of criminal slang. The baffling language of the criminal underworld wove webs of deception around numerous victims, and The Canting Academy followed a tradition of books designed to warn the innocent city dweller against rogues, vagabonds, and pickpockets. 'I shall endeavour to give you an exect account of these Caterpillars,' wrote Head, 'with their hidden and mysterious way of speaking, which they make use to blind the eyes of those they have cheated or rob'd.'
Shelfmark: 1551/63.
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