subs. phr. (old).—1. Cant, or the language of thieves and vagabonds; and (2) any unintelligible jargon; also ST. GILES’ GREEK (q.v.). [‘French’ and ‘Greek’ here = ‘unintelligible.’]—B. E. (c. 1696); GROSE (1785).
1530. PALSGRAVE, Langue Francoyse, 368. s.v. SPEKE. They speke a PEDLARS FRENCHE amongst themselfe.
c. 1536. COPLAND, The Hye-way to the Spyttel-hous [FARMER, Musa Pedestris (1896), 2].
| And thus they babble tyll their thryft is thin | |
| I wote not what with their PEDLYNG FRENCHE. |
1567. HARMAN, A Caveat or Warening for Common Cursetors (1841). vi. Their language which they terme PEDDELERS FRENCHE or canting.
1598. FLORIO, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Gergare, to speake fustian, PEDDLERS FRENCH, or rogues language, or gibbrish.
1611. MIDDLETON and DEKKER, The Roaring Girle, v. 1. I’ll give a schoolmaster half-a-crown a week, and teach me this PEDLER’S FRENCH.
1622. MASSINGER, The Virgin Martyr, ii. 1. Spun. Why, fellow Angelo, we were speaking in PEDLAR’S FRENCH, I hope.
1640. [SHIRLEY], Captain Underwit, ii. 2 [BULLEN, Old Plays, ii. 351]. Sis. One rime more and you undoe my love for ever. Out upon’t! PEDLARS FRENCH is a Christian language to this.
c. 1614. BEAUMONT and FLETCHER, The Faithful Friends, i. 2.
| ’Twere fitter | |
| Such honest lads as myself had it, that instead | |
| Of PEDLAR’S FRENCH gives him plain language for his money. |
1834. W. H. AINSWORTH, Rookwood, Preface. Its meaning must be perfectly clear and perspicuous to the practised patterer of Romany, or PEDLER’S FRENCH.
