THE COMPLETE
CONY-CATCHING
by ROBERT GREENE
Introduction
Robert Greene (1558 1592) was an English dramatist, poet,
pamphleteer, rake and debauchee. He appears as a minor character in both of
Anthony Burgess' Elizabethan novels Nothing Like The Sun (about
Shakespeare) and A Dead Man In Deptford (about Marlowe). A graduate of
Clare Hall,
In the six pamphlets here collected you will learn about
the tricks of cony-catchers
(swindlers), nips (cutpurses), foists (pickpockets), cross-biters (men who extort money from
a prostitute's clients by pretending to be her husband), lifts (shoplifters, and stealers of other unguarded goods), priggers (horse
thieves), and courbers
(thieves who drag goods out through the window with a long hooked pole). Based
on close observation, and illustrated with stories of notable strokes, they
give a great insight into the underside of queen Bess's and Shakespeare's
London.
|
Download |
|
Links |
