Volume I
|
Shakespeare's hand1; and the Perrys, who provide a classic joint-example of the madness which so incomprehensibly often inspires an innocent man to "confess" to murder and of a "murdered" man reappearing again alive after others had unjustly suffered for his death. Our authorities for this volume are Captain Charles Johnson's A General HISTORY OF THE LIVES and ADVENTURES of the Most Famous Highwaymen, Murderers, Street-Robbers, &c.To which is added a Genuine Account of the VOYAGES and PLUNDERS of the Most Notorius PYRATES. Interspersed with several diverting TALES and Pleasant SONGS. And adorned with the Heads of the Most Remarkble VILLAINS, Curiously engraven on copper. LONDON. Printed for and sold by J. JANEWAY, in White-Fryers; and by the Booksellers of London and Westminster. MDCCXXXIV; his original, Captain Alexander Smith's A Compleat HISTORY of the LIVES and ROBBERIES of the Most Notorious Highway-men, Foot-Pads, Shop-Lifts, and Cheats of both Sexes, in and about London and Westminster, and all Parts of Great Britain, for above an Hundred Years past,continued to the present time. Wherein their most Secret and Barbarous Murders, Unparallel'd Robberies, Notorious Thefts, and Unheard-of Cheats, are set in a true Light, and expos'd to publick View, for the common Benefit of Mankind. The Fifth Edition (adorn'd with Cuts),with the Addition of near Two Hundred Robberies lately committed. LONDON. Printed for Sam. Briscoe, and Sold by A. Dodd at the Peacock without Temple Bar, 1719; and George Borrow's CELEBRATED TRIALS, and Remarkable Cases of CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE FROM THE EARLIEST RECORDS ro THE YEAR 1825, 1825. Much pruning has been done among these volumes to fit them to our present purpose, but nothing more than will let air in. From the Lives of the Highwaymen, etc., has come a mass of irrelevant overgrowth--picturesque ivy from the more ancient plants and grafted moralisings--and an occasional unpleasant fungus. From Borrow have been cropped the State Trials (the series is confined to crimes of a private nature), and a litter of shoots which did but hide the trees--the verbiage of the courts and of witnesses. Beyond this our own handiwork is limited to the bindings up again, to occasional graftings, and to the headings and sub-headings to each subject. Johnson's Lives was a reprint and an extension of Captain Smith's pioneer publication in this line, which was a réchauffé, be it said, of the chapbooks. Johnson lifted from Smith wholesale and poured scorn on him the while--to quieten his own conscience one would guess. Also, apparently in order to make his pilfering not quite so glaring, he occasionally altered Smith, and these alterations were not always to advantage. In his account of Claude Du Vall, for instance, he deliberately falsified the incident of the child's silver sucking-bottle, fathering it on a subordinate in order not to spoil the romantic glamour round his hero (this, we are glad to say, was not typical of him). We have replaced it with Smith's account, and if any justification were needed would refer the reader to The Memoirs of Monsieur Du Vall; Containing the History of his Life and Death: Whereunto are annexed his last Speech and Epitaph. Intended as a severe Reflexion on the too great Fondness of English Ladies towards French Footmen; which, at that Time of Day, was a too common complaint. London, 1670, which is to be found in volume iii. of the Harleian Miscellany. This is the source for Smith's and Johnson's life, and is, in fact, the only approach to an authoritative account there is of Du Vall's life. Johnson again gives a totally different life to Captain Richard Dudley. We have dropped his version entirely, preferring Smith's as the more likely. Incidentally the latter contains the only reference that, strangely enough, either has to the celebrated Swiftnicks, who earned this Further, Smith's account of Captain Dudley contains a little aside on life in the Poultry Compter, which is so full of knowledge and vibrant with feeling that we are convinced it is drawn from personal experience. Our captain's writings, probably our captains', were most probably inspired from the inside. One or two of the lives have been dropped. Smith and Johnson began their veracious histories with such unvera- cious figures as Sir John Falstaff and Robin Hood. We have decided to omit these popular heroes. The first history is a mossy growth that has attached itself to the name of an The only other missing life is that of " Colonel Jacque." The wonderful imaginative actualism of Defoe induced Johnson to lift the Life of Colonel Jacque bodily into his own General History.4 It is interesting to conjecture what influence, if any, Defoe had on the lives of James Batson and Thomas Gray which, similarly autobiographical, are found in Johnson though not in Smith. There certainly seems to be more Johnson than chapbook in them, but this is a question we cannot, at this time of day, pretend to pronounce on. In any case Defoe certainly had a not unworthy pupil. Deep back as these lives take us into our national existence, it is extraordinary how nearly they are linked to our own times. Though it seems hardly credible, there is still living in an institution near Liverpool a woman who remembers, as a child, peeping out of a stage-coach and seeing the passengers robbed by highwaymen. Mrs Janet Ann Newberry is her name, and she is only 102. We dedicate this work to her. DULWICH, August 1924. |
2 See The Hand of Glory, edited by J. Fairfax-Blakeborough. Grant Richards, 1924. (back to text)
3 A possible clue to Swiftnicks' Christian name may be found in a postscript to Jackson's Recantation, or, the Life and Death of the Notorious High-Way-Man, now hanging in chains at Hampstead. Delivered to a friend, a little before execution: wherein is truly discovered the whole mystery of that wicked and fatal profession of Padding on the Road. London, Printed for T. B. in the year 1674, in which "Samuel Swiftnicks" tells the reader that "this is no fiction, but a true relation of Mr Jackson's life and conversation, pen'd by his own hand, and delivered into mine to be made publick for his Countrymen's good, etc. etc." (back to text)
4 It might be argued that Johnson would not have included "Col. Jacque" had he not had other confirmation of that rogue's actual existence. Even so, the great preponderance of fiction over fact in Defoe's works would be enough to keep the life out of even this collection. In any case it is easily obtainable otherwise. (back to text)