or Abram, Abram-man, Abram-cove, subs. phr. (old cant).—See quots.: also BEDLAM BEGGAR (q.v.) and TOM OF BEDLAM. [These sturdy beggars roamed the country, begging and stealing, down to the period of the Civil Wars.] Hence TO SHAM (or DO) ABRAM (or TO ABRAHAM SHAM) = (1) to feign madness; and (2) to sham sick (nautical). Also ABRAM, adj. = (1) naked (GROSE), (2) = mad, and (3) = shamming sick; ABRAHAM-WORK = shams of all kinds, false pretences: whence TO GO ON THE ABRAHAM SUIT = to resort to trick or artifice. See ABRAHAM, subs. 2. [The Mad Tom of King Lear is an Abram-man: see Edgar’s description, iii. 4.]
1567. AWDELEY, The Fraternitye of Vacabondes. An ABRAHAM-MAN is he that walketh bare-armed, and bare-legged, and fayneth hymselfe mad, and caryeth a packe of wool, or a styck with baken on it, or such lyke toy, and nameth himself poore Tom.
1575. HARMAN, A Caveat or Warening for Common Cursetors (1814), 29. These ABRAHAM MEN be those that fayn themselves to have bene mad, and have bene kept either in Bethlehem, or in some other pryson a good time, and not one amongst twenty that ever came in prison for any such cause.
1610. ROWLANDS, Martin Mark-all, 36 (Hunterian Club’s Reprint, 1874). ABRAM madde. He maunds ABRAM, he begs as a madde man.
1622. FLETCHER, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1.
| Jarkman, or Patrico, Cranke, or Clapper-dudgeon, | |
| Frater, or ABRAM-MAN; I speak to all | |
| That stand in fair election for the title | |
| Of king of beggars. |
1625. MASSINGER, A New Way to Pay Old Debts, ii. 1. Are they padders or ABRAM-MEN that are your consorts?
1632. DEKKER, English Villanies. The ABRAHAM COVE is a lustie strong rogue who walketh with a slate about his quarrons.
1671. R. HEAD, The English Rogue, I. v. 47 (1874). ABRAM, naked.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. ABRAM-MEN, c. the seventeenth Order of the Canting-crew. Beggers antickly trick’d up with Ribbands, Red Tape, Foxtails, Rags, &c. pretending Madness to palliate their Thefts of Poultrey, Linnen, &c.
1724. E. COLES, English Dictionary. ABRAM COVE, c. naked or poor man.
1759. GOLDSMITH, The Citizen of the World, cxix. He swore that I understood my business perfectly well, but that I SHAMMED ABRAHAM merely to be idle.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. ABRAM COVE, a cant word among thieves, signifying a naked or poor man; also a lusty strong rogue. Ibid., TO SHAM ABRAM, to pretend sickness.
1822. NARES, Glossary, s.v. ABRAHAM-MEN. A set of vagabonds, who wandered about the country, soon after the dissolution of the religious houses; the provision for the poor in those places being cut off, and no other substituted.
1824. SCOTT, St. Ronan’s Well, xxi. There is a trick for you to find an ABRAM-MAN, and save sixpence when he begs as a disbanded seaman.
1839. HOOD, Ode to Rae Wilson.
| I own I shake my sides at ranters, | |
| And treat SHAM ABR’AM saints with wicked banters. |
1849. C. BRONTË, Shirley, xxxiii. Matthew, skeptic and scoffer,… had muttered some words, among which the phrase ‘SHAMMING ABRAHAM’ had been very distinctly audible.
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v. ABRAHAM COVE. A naked or poor man; a beggar in rags.
1887. W. E. HENLEY, Villon’s Good-Night. You cadgers on the ABRAM-SHAM.
1899. BESANT, The Orange Girl, 148. Your Cousin Mathew is as mad as an ABRAM-MAN.
