THE MARK OF THE FIRKIN
Oun parents read the moralists, Swift and Voltaire, in expur- gated editions. More modern taste seems t3 be reverting to the vintage-of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The London Spy may stimulate that reversion. "Antiquarians," says the Gentleman's Magazine for October, 1857, " have already agreed to overlook the coarseness of Ward's language, and the distortions of his far-fetched conceits, and regard his London Spy as in many respects a trustworthy memorial of London localities and London manners at the close of the seventeenth century."
If that is so, antiquarians must have very impervious noses. Ned Ward is an excellent example of the quick-witted publican, whose shrewd, quick, and irreverent mind records everything and sympathizes with nothing. His observation of contemporary life and the crisp way in which he finds an epithet or simile for each of the myriad pictures caught by his finch-like eyes are truly amazing. Hogarth, by com- parison, is a myopic old dog. Nothing, however, that Ward sees can raise pity in his heart. Even when, in the company of the night-watch, he finds a babe in a wicker basket, deserted in sonic dark passage, all he is moved to is another string of his interminable conceits and quips which glint from his wit like the light flashing from the glittering plate glass of a saloon bar swingdoor.
Though nothing can be said in praise of his prose style— it has too bumping a rhythm, as though spouted to an accom- paniment of tankards on oak—his vocabulary is rich and crusted with originality. Words to him are like oysters— delectable morsels, and good company for honest brew, the one enhancing the flavour of the other. In this he was a creature of his age, for the sorriest news-hack in those days had no use for a salacious titbit unless it could be dressed with a sauce of elaborate Latinisms, and served up with all the prunings from the pedants' bush of mediaeval scholarship. There are innumerable words and references in this book which call for a glossary and notes. What is a " Booncriton " for instance ? Is it an apple or a nut ? And whence does he get the words " snush " and " prehemence " ?
At times our hearty publican can be very nimble, as in his description of the Frenchmen to be seen at the Royal Exchange, "who talk more with their Heads and Hands, than with their Tongues ; who commonly Speak first, and Think afterwards ; step a Minuet as they Walk, and sit as Graceful on an Exchange-Bench as if in a great Saddle ; their Bodies always Dance to their Tongues, and are so great lovers of Action, that they were ready to wound every Pillar with their Canes, as they pass'd by, either in Ters, Cart, or Sacoon."
Every page of his book tempts one to quotations, though the morsels most frequently contain streaks that are unprint- able outside the minutes of an antiquarian society's meeting. Ned Ward was a wily and cunning brute, a "knowing sort" whose loudness and coarseness over-rode all finer strains ; one in whose company "An Aristotle's but an Ass."
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