or ben, bien, adj. (old cant).—Good. [Probably a corruption from the Latin.] BENAR and BENAT appear to have been used as comparatives of BENE: cf. RUM (= good) which quickly supplanted BENE. Hence BENE-BOVZE = strong drink, good liquor; BENE ROM-BOVSE = good wine; BENE-COVE = good fellow, a PALL (q.v.); BENE DARKMANS! = good night! BENE SHIP = very good: also worship, e.g., Your BENE SHIP = Your worship: BENE SHIPLY = worship fully; BENE-FEAKER = a counterfeiter (B. E. and GROSE: ? faker); BENE MOST = a fine woman, a pretty girl, a hostess. Also TO CUT BENLE = to speak gently; STOW YOUR BENE = Hold your tongue, etc. (HARMAN; B. E.; GROSE).
1567. HARMAN, A Caveat or Warening for Common Cursetors (1869), 86. The vpright man canteth to the Roge. Man! ‘That is BENESHYP to our watche.’ [That is very good for us.] Ibid., 85 (ed. 1869). A BENE MORT hereby at the sign of the prauncer. [i.e., The Horse]. Ibid., 85. The vpright cofe canteth to the Roge: ‘I saye by the Salomon I will lage it of with a gage of BENEBOUSE; then cut to my nose watch.’ [‘I sweare by the masse, I wull washe it of with a quart of good drynke; then saye to me what thou wylt.’] Ibid., 85. I will lage it of with a gage of BENEBOUSE; then cut to my nose watch. I wull washe it off with a quart of good drynke; then say to me what thou wylt. Ibid., 86. What, stowe your BENE, cofe, and sut BENAT whydds, and byng we to rome vyle to nyp a bong. [i.e., What, hold your peace good fellow and speak better words, and let us go to London to cut, or steal a purse.] Ibid., 86. Now I tower that BENE BOUSE makes nase nabes. Ibid., 85. A BENE MORT hereby at the sign of the prauncer.
1610. ROWLANDS, Martin Mark-all, ‘The Maunder’s Wooing.’ O BEN mort wilt thou pad with me.
1610. ROWLANDS, Martin Mark-all, 37 [Hunterian Club’s Reprint, 1874]. BEN, good.
1611. MIDDLETON and DEKKER, The Roaring Girle, v. 1.
| A gage of BEN rom-bouse … | |
| Is benar than a caster, | |
| Peck, pennam, lay, or popler, | |
| Which we mill in deuse a vile. |
1612. DEKKER, O per se O [FARMER, Musa Pedestris (1896), 11].
| And prig and cloy so BENSHIPLY, | |
| all the dewsea-vile within. |
1622. FLETCHER, Beggar’s Bush. ‘The Maunder’s Initiation.’ I crown thy nab with a gage of BEN BOUSE.
1671. R. HEAD, The English Rogue.
| Bing out, BIEN morts, and ture and ture, | |
| Bing out, BIEN morts, and ture; | |
| For all your duds are bing’d awast, | |
| The BIEN cove hath the loure. |
1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11, list of cant words in. BIEN, good.
1822. SCOTT, The Fortunes of Nigel, xvii. ‘Tour out,’ said the one ruffian to the other; ‘tour the BIEN mort twiring at the gentry cove.’
1823. SCOTT, Peveril of the Peak, xxxvi. Why the BIEN morts will think you a chimney-sweeper on May-day.
1858. A. MAYHEW, Paved with Gold, III, iii. ‘I’ve brought a couple of BENE coves, with lots of the Queen’s pictures in their sacks.’
