The Elizabethan age was one of unbounded vitality and exuberance; nowhere is the color and action of life more vividly revealed than in the rogue books and cony-catching (confidence game) pamphlets of the sixteenth century. This book presents seven of the age's liveliest works: Walker's Manifest Detection of Dice Play; Awdeley's Fraternity of Vagabonds; Harman's Caveat for Common Cursitors Vulgarly Called Vagabonds; Greene's Notable Discovery of Cozenage and Black Book's Messenger; Dekker's Lantern and Candle-light; and Rid's Art of Juggling. From these pages spring the denizens of the Elizabethan underworld: cutpurses, hookers, palliards, jarkmen, doxies, counterfeit cranks, bawdy-baskets, walking morts, and priggers of prancers. In his introduction, Arthur F. Kinney discusses the significance of these works as protonovels and their influence on such writers as Shakespeare. He also explores the social, political, and economic conditions of a time that spawned a community of renegades who conned their way to fame, fortune, and, occasionally, the rope at Tyburn.

First published in 1967. This volume has grown out of a study of a number of Elizabethan pamphlets dealing with rogues and vagabonds, the most important of which are the Conny-catching series of Robert Greene and the Catteat for Commm Cursetors of Thomas Harman. 'Conny-catching' was an Elizabethan slang word for a particular method of cheating at cards, but it came to be used in a general sense for all kinds of tricks by which rogues and sharpers beguiled simple people of their money. The books are vivid and well written, and they picture an elaborately organized profession of roguery with a language of its own and a large number of well-defined. Methods and traditions.

Reproduction of the original: Rogues and Vagabonds by George R. Sims

Air Vagabonds is the story of the amazing, true (mis)adventures of a band of rogues piloting aircraft alone into exotic and deadly destinations. In the late 1970s and through the 1980s the demand for light aircraft eclipsed anything seen before or since. This created the need for a small air force of pilots—ferry pilots—willing to fly thousands of planes to clients in every corner of the globe. Long-range solo flying is not for everyone, and it attracted a cast of eccentric, unforgettable mavericks who flew from one misadventure to the next, battling storms, desert winds, aircraft malfunctions, primitive navigational aids, loneliness, chemical imbalances, and dangerous Third World politics. Some carried on international scams and love affairs, some were lost at sea, some imprisoned by African despots. They’re all here, described with humor and high drama by one of their own, a survivor with phenomenal recall, a knack for distinguishing character from bluster, and a great ear for dialogue and aviation lore.