1654 Les Miserables
of the real estate by the mortgagor,’ the playwright who says:
‘The piece was hissed,’ the comedian who says: ‘I’ve made
a hit,’ the philosopher who says: ‘Phenomenal triplicity,’
the huntsman who says: ‘Voileci allais, Voileci fuyant,’ the
phrenologist who says: ‘Amativeness, combativeness, secre-
tiveness,’ the infantry soldier who says: ‘My shooting-iron,’
the cavalry-man who says: ‘My turkey-cock,’ the fencing-
master who says: ‘Tierce, quarte, break,’ the printer who says:
‘My shooting-stick and galley,’—all, printer, fencing-master,
cavalry dragoon, infantry-man, phrenologist, huntsman,
philosopher, comedian, playwright, sheriff, gambler, stock-
broker, and merchant, speak slang. The painter who says:
‘My grinder,’ the notary who says: ‘My Skip-the-Gutter,’
the hairdresser who says: ‘My mealyback,’ the cobbler who
says: ‘My cub,’ talks slang. Strictly speaking, if one abso-
lutely insists on the point, all the different fashions of saying
the right and the left, the sailor’s port and starboard, the
scene-shifter’s court-side, and garden-side, the beadle’s
Gospel-side and Epistle-side, are slang. There is the slang
of the affected lady as well as of the precieuses. The Hotel
Rambouillet nearly adjoins the Cour des Miracles. There
is a slang of duchesses, witness this phrase contained in a
love-letter from a very great lady and a very pretty woman
of the Restoration: ‘You will find in this gossip a fultitude of
reasons why I should libertize.’[40] Diplomatic ciphers are
slang; the pontifical chancellery by using 26 for Rome, grkz-
tntgzyal for despatch, and abfxustgrnogrkzu tu XI. for the
Due de Modena, speaks slang. The physicians of the Middle
Ages who, for carrot, radish, and turnip, said Opoponach,