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com/bawdy

Bawdy Songbooks of the

Romantic Period
General Editors: Patrick Spedding and Paul Watt
Volume Editors: Rachel Cowgill, Edward Cray, David Gregory and Derek B Scott
4 Volume Set: c.1600pp: May 2011
978 1 84893 029 2: 234x156mm: £350/$625

One of the popular metropolitan pastimes of

the nineteenth century was the singing of ribald
songs. These songs, forced off the streets by the
Society for the Suppression of Vice, were sung by
professional actors and singers in theatres, music
halls, gardens and other public venues. But they
were also sung by amateurs in cider and coal-
hole cellars, coffee-houses and gentlemen’s clubs.
Because almost no songbooks survive from the
first half of the nineteenth century, this species
of popular entertainment has, until recently, been
almost completely overlooked in favour of the
rural and street ballads which were collected by
‘Modest Obadiah, Or, The Wedding Night’
respectable gentlemen-scholars.
from Fun Alive, O! A capital collection of flash, slang,
The songbooks of the 1830s and 1840s contain no comic, and queer songs [1833?]
printed music. Collections like Nancy Dawson’s
Cabinet of Choice Songs or Fanny Hill’s Bang-up •R
 eprints extremely rare, newly discovered
Reciter were printed in tiny numbers, and on the material
sly, for ‘flash gentlemen’ and ‘rummy coves’ (so
•P
 resents almost all of the known songbooks of
their titles tell us) who were already familiar with
the period
the tunes used and with the songs parodied. These
booklets were printed in a small format so they • A ll the texts are reproduced in full and in
could be hidden in a pocket, memorised, and then alphabetical order by songbook title
passed around or thrown away.
• A ll texts fully reset, with title pages presented in
Collectors have long sought ‘these priceless facsimile
chapbooks’, but only recently a collection of forty-
nine songbooks, amounting to about one thousand • Includes
 a general introduction, volume
individual song texts, has come to light. This reset introductions, headnotes and endnotes
collection therefore represents almost all of the
known songbooks from the period. The reprinting
of these songs represents a golden opportunity
for scholars interested in popular music, London
theatre and music halls, as well as the slang and
flash-language of the period.
IT ET
N
D S
IO
E E
R
 www.pickeringchatto.com/bawdy

Contents*: The Facetious Songster. A slap-up collection of favourite

The Bang-up Songster! A famous collection of ... amatory
and clamatory staves, etc
The Black Joke; a new, funny, flash and frisky songster,
etc
Capt Morris’s songs. A very capital collection of
bacchanalian, amatory, and double entendre songs, etc
The Cockchafer. A choice selection of flash, frisky, and
funny songs, etc
The Comic Songster, and Gentleman’s Private Cabinet:
with a superior collection of funny toasts, etc
The Convivialist; an extensive collection of humorous,
flash and love songs, etc
The Corinthian; an extensive collection of flash songs, etc
The Cove, a regular rum collection of spreeish songs, etc
The Cuckold’s Nest of choice, flash, smutty, and delicious
songs, etc
The Delicious Chanter, and Exciting Warbler; a capital
collection of randy ... songs, etc
new flash, amatory and comic songs, etc
The Fake Away Songster, a capital collection of regular
good songs, etc
The Fal-lal Songster, a real tip-top budget of amatory,
drinking, sporting, and laughable songs, etc
Fanny Hill’s Bang-up Reciter, Friskey Songster, and
Amarous [sic] Toast Master, etc
Fanny Hill’s New Friskey Chanter, and Amorous Toast
Master; containing a slashing lot of randy ... flash songs,
etc
The Flare-up Songster, or Flash kiddy’s fancy! etc
The Flash Casket, a very curious collection of mouth-
watering parodies, funny fakements, etc
The Flash Chaunter. An out-and-out collection, etc
The Flash Chaunter, a slashing, dashing, friskey, and
delecious [sic] collection of gentlemen’s songs, etc
The Flash Minstrel! A famous new collection, etc
The Flash Olio: all that is funny, facetious, and amorous,
etc (Famous songs!)

‘The Copper Stick! A Capital New Song’

from Nancy Dawson’s Cabinet of Choice Songs, being a collection of some of the most superlative,
amatory, flash, luxurious, and dainty ditties, ever before printed [1842?]
 www.pickeringchatto.com/bawdy

The Frisky Vocalist, and Funny Chaunter.

Adapted for gentlemen only, etc
Fun Alive, O! A capital collection of flash,
slang, comic, and queer songs, etc
The Funny Songster; an extensive collection
of flash, amatory, and comical songs, etc
The Gentleman’s Private Songster, containing
an out-and-out colection of ... flash songs, etc
The Gentleman’s Sparkling Songster, nothin
but regular good ... amatory ditties, etc
The Gentleman’s Spicey Songster, etc
The Gentleman’s Steeple-Chaser, a choice
selection of flash songs, etc
The Little Icky-Wickey Songster. A new
collection of delicious and luxurious staves,
etc
The Knowing Chaunter; or, Kiddy’s cabinet! ‘Mary and the Frozen Limb’
etc from The Lummy Chaunter: a plummy collection of original and celebrated
The Libertine’s Songster, etc flash staves [1833?]

The Lummy Chaunter: a plummy collection of

original and celebrated flash staves, etc
The Luscious Songster; a delicious cabinet of
all that is amatory, flash & funny, etc The Ri-tum Ti-tun Songster: a slashing, dashing, leary,
frisky, and delicious collection of gentlemen’s songs, etc
Nancy Dawson’s Cabinet of Choice Songs, being a
collection of some of the most superlative, amatory, flash, The Rumcodger’s Collection of Prime New Flash &
luxurious, and dainty ditties, ever before printed, etc Amatory Songs, etc

The New Cockolorum Songster, etc The Rummy Cove’s Delight; a pretty considerable
collection of queer staves, etc
The Nobby Songster, a prime collection as now singing at
Offleys Cider Cellar: Coal Hole, etc The Rum ti tum! A favourite collection of amatory,
bacchanalian and laughable songs, etc
The Out-and-Outer. A right up-an-end collection of flash &
amatory songs, etc The Secret Songster, a capital collection of ... flare-up
songs, etc
The Rake’s Budget, and Songster’s Tickler, etc
The Swell!!! or Slap-up chaunter: an out-and-out
The Rambler’s Flash Songster, nothing but out and outers,
collection of flash songs, etc
adapted for gentlemen only, etc
The Ticklish Minstrel! A most bewitching collection of the
The Randy Songster, etc
very best and most truly lecherous and delicious vocal tit-
The Regular Thing, and No Mistake: or, a Prime collection bits ever printed, etc
of flash chaunts, etc
Tommarroo Songster; containing all the new and popular
songs now singing at the Theatres Royal, Rotunda ... by
Editorial Board
Freeman, Beular, Hudson, Bruton, etc
Patrick Spedding and Paul Watt are at
Monash University *order of texts is liable to change prior to publication
Rachel Cowgill is at Liverpool Hope
University
David Gregory is at Athabasca University Sample material can be viewed by visiting
Edward Cray is at the University of Southern www.pickeringchatto.com/bawdy
California
and clicking on ‘Sample Pages’
Derek Scott is at the University of Leeds
 Related title

Whore Biographies, 1700–1825

Editor: Julie Peakman
Consulting Editors: Alex Pettit and Patrick Spedding
The sexual misdemeanours of the great and the not-so-good have always attracted attention. Across
eight meticulously edited volumes, this two-part collection of carefully selected and extremely rare texts
focuses on autobiographies and biographies of courtesans, directories of whores, erotic poems dedicated
to harlots, jocular descriptions of prostitutes and jest books on strumpets.
• These works have not been printed in their full unexpurgated versions since the eighteenth century
• Full editorial apparatus, including substantial general introduction to each part, headnotes to each
text and endnotes
• Fully consolidated index for the complete set in the final volume
• Original footnotes or asides included
• Each facsimile page is digitally cleaned and enhanced, significantly improving on the quality and
legibility of the original

Part I: Volumes 1–4: 1665pp: 2006

978 1 85196 806 0: 234x156mm: £350/$625

Part II: Volumes 5–8: 1712pp: 2007

978 1 85196 807 7: 234x156mm: £350/$625

‘a rich and rewarding collection of material, useful on gender and genre.’

– Heather King, The Scriblerian

‘These texts, published across a century and a quarter, are in debate with one another
on various levels, and Peakman has succeeded admirably in representing that ongoing
conversation’
– Marilyn Booth, Biography
www.pickeringchatto.com/whorebiographies

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