Cant [ Language & Speech ]
… appeared in the following decade. 5 In 1769, for instance, Isaac Bickerstaffe published a new adaptation of Molière's Tartuffe (1669) and of Colley Cibber’s The Non-Juror (1717), entitled The Hypocrite in which the eponymous character was now called ‘Dr. Cantwell’. 6 1 . ‘CANT. 1. A corrupt dialect used by beggars and vagabonds. 2. A particular form of speaking, peculiar to some certain class or body of men. 3. A whining pretension to goodness, in formal … Francis Grose, for instance, tried to justify his interest in colloquial language: ‘The Vulgar Tongue consists of two parts: the first in the Cant language, called sometimes Pedlar’s French, or St. Giles’s Greek […]; as many of these terms …
Controversy | Conversation | Hypocrisy | Rhetoric
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