The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian Street Literature and Stories

FIVE NEW FLASH-CANT WORDS AND PHRASES —

• "Autem bawler"
• "Cat's meat shop"
• "Bulldogs"
• "Cross-crib"
• "Hoister mots, high tobers, and Moabites"

Plus a chapter each from our five vintage Penny Dreadfuls!

0:04:30:…

IN WHICH we learn some of the back story of the unlikely "hero" of Black Bess; or, The Knight of the Road, courtesy of a 12-page children's chapbook published by Samuel and John Keys of Devonport in …

*stands for "A Fate Worse Than Death." We'll be seeing a lot of this!

FIVE NEW FLASH-CANT WORDS AND PHRASES —

• "Lawful Blanket"
• "Gunpowder"
• "Timber merchant"
• "Swill Tub"
• "Philistines"

Plus a chapter each fro…

FIVE NEW FLASH-CANT WORDS AND PHRASES —

• "Academician"
• "Tog and kicks"
• "Shooting the cat"
• "Jobber knot"
• "Knife it"

Plus a chapter each from our five vintage Penny Dreadfuls!

0:04:10: SWEENEY TODD, Ch. 45 —

• Ma…

FIVE NEW FLASH-CANT WORDS AND PHRASES —

• "Glim"
• "Bolt the moon"
• "Nubbing"
• "Flat-catchers"
• "The holy land"

Plus a chapter each from our five vintage Penny Dreadfuls!

0:03:45: SWEENEY TODD, Ch. 44 —

• Mrs. Lovett…

Just a quick update! After "dogfooding" last Saturday's episode, Prof. Flash has concluded that —

• the "Dreadful Dossiers" slow things down too much ...
• so does having Sweeney Todd and Varney the Vampyr…

Join Professor Flash, a.k.a. Finn J.D. John. for a 90-minute spree through the story papers of old London! Grab a flicker of blue ruin, unload your stumps, and let's go!

0:03:45: DREADFUL-DOSSIERS REP…

FIRST — in Flash Academy, we'll learn what blowing the gab, drawing a cork, cat lap, "as right as a trivet," and Captain Flasham meant, in highwaymen's slang.

THEN — we hit five different story papers…

A mid-week catch-up to get the numbers right means we've got Chapter 3 of our three newest Dreadfuls coming your way!

• IN BLACK BESS; OR, THE KNIGHT OF THE ROAD: Dick Turpin foils the woodman's treache…

FIRST — in Flash Academy, we'll learn what high pads, glims flashy, high flyer, drawing a long bow, and hopping the twig meant, in highwaymens' slang.

THEN — we plunder five different story papers!

In…

INTRODUCING our NEW FORMAT!

FIRST — in Flash Academy, we'll learn what Paddington Fair Day, Darby's Fair, Barking Irons, and Cherry-Coloured Prads meant, in highwaymens' slang.

THEN — we plunder five d…

BIG DOINGS! This week, in addition to plundering Sweeney Todd, we're adding Varney the Vampyre to the show. Next week, we'll add Black Bess; or, The Knight of the Road and Spring-Heel'd Jack, the Ter…

IN WHICH we learn what "a flash of lightning," "a noggen of red tape," "hot flannel," "blackstrap," and "heavy wet" meant in 1830 ...

THEN — Tobias just barely escapes from the wrath of Fogg and Watso…

IN WHICH we learn what "Gammon," "Heavers," "High Gloaks," "Bounceable Cyprians," and "Boners of Stiff-Ones" meant in 1830 ...

THEN — Colonel Jeffery and his friend Captain Rathbone actually watch a w…

IN WHICH poor Tobias is uncomfortably settled into a dungeon cell in the lunatic asylum; Mrs. Lovett’s cook learns the bitter truth, that he is a prisoner enslaved and must make pies for her if he wa…

IN WHICH Tobias breaks into Sweeney Todd’s back parlor while he is out and finds a vast trove of hats, sticks, and jewelry clearly plundered from the dead ... parishoners at St. Dunstan’s church star…

IN WHICH Tobias, the barber’s apprentice, has become absolutely certain Sweeney Todd is murdering his customers — Colonel Jeffery and Johanna Oakley decide that the murdered Mr. Thornhill must be Joh…

IN WHICH we meet Mrs. Lovett’s pie-baker, who she keeps imprisoned in the basement; then he is slain by an assassin with a hammer, and she has to hire (that is, trap) a new pie-baker. ... Mrs. Oakley…

IN WHICH Sweeney Todd is almost caught by a nest of highway robbers while running for it, after the lapidary he tried to fence the pearls to smelled a rat and shouted "stop thief"; the loathesome Pas…

IN WHICH Johanna learns sad news about her missing fiance, and Sweeney Todd makes an attempt to fence the pearls he stole from Mr. Thornhill after murdering him in Chapter 1 ... but the pearls are wo…