FREDEEICK S. ARNOLD. 95 



very well witli bluff King Hal, and in the 10th chapter, 

 22 Henry VIII (1630 A. D.), they are legislated against 

 as "an outlandish x>eople, calling, themselves Egypt- 

 ians" (Blackstone's Comm., IV, 165), and in 1549 " there 

 "was privy search made through all Sussex for all vaga- 

 " bonds, Gypsies, conspirators, prophesiers, players, 

 "and such like." (Simson, "Hist, of Gypsies," Chap. 

 II, p. 91.) The government of England was at that time 

 very strenuous against the Romany. 5 Eliz., c. 20, en- 

 acted that if any Gypsy remained in the realm a month, 

 or if any person over fourteen years of age associated 

 himself with the Gypsies, it was felony without benefit of 

 clergy, and Gypsies were to be deprived of a jury per 

 medietatem linguae; and although the last recorded 

 execution under this act is the execution of thirteen 

 Gypsies at one Suffolk assizes just before the restoration, 

 described by Sir Matthew Hale, the rigorous statute was 

 not repealed until the 23 Geo., Ill, c. 51, since when 

 Gypsies have been punishable in England under the 

 vagrant act (Blackstone Gomm., IV, 166, Christian's 

 Note 6). The various laws against vagrants have also 

 always been applicable to them in the United States, 

 probably. It is interesting in the old statute to note the 

 depriving them of a jury per medietatem linguae. The 

 existence of their secret language was early known and 

 is somewhere called "The right Egyptian language" 

 (Hoyland). 



Literary men took considerable notice of the Gypsies 

 from the first. Beaumontand Fletcher's very interesting 

 comedy of the "Beggars' Bush," while it does not men- 

 tion them, teems with their spirit, and several real Gypsy 

 words are found in the slang vocabulary there intro- 

 duced. Ben Jonson has written a masque called "The 

 Metamorphosed Gypsies," the plot of which is laid in 

 Wales. He introduces a lot of cant and slang words, 

 but I only noticed one or two real Romany ones and 



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