Words in Samuel Johnson's Dictionary that reference Roger L'Estrange's writings - mostly are from Aesop Fables which were translated by Estrange with his unique word play. Most particularly, he put words together to form new thoughts. Johnson many times commented that Estrange's words were vulgar, not of value etc., but he used the writings nevertheless. Only two other writers were more in evidence in the dictionary; Shakespeare and Dryden.
Following are words that appeared in the "modern selection" by E. L. McAdams, Jr. and George Milne. Granted they chose words for their "shock" value, nevertheless, it's interesting to see how Sir Roger's wordplay added to the color of the language.
above-board - It is the part also of an honest man to deal above-board, and without tricks.
ado - Come, come, says Puss, without any more ado �tis time for me to go to breakfast; for cats don't live upon dialogues.
arrantly - Funeral tears are as arrantly hired out as mourning clokes (cloaks).
badger legged - His body crooked all over, big-bellied, badger legged, and his complection swarthy.
bearward - The bear is led after one manner, the multitude after another; the bearward leads but one brute, and the mountebank leads a thousand.
bend - As a fowler was bending his net, a blackbird asked him what he was doing.
bob - Here we have been worrying one another, who should have the booty, till this cursed fox has bobbed us both on't.
boldface - How now, boldface! Cries an old trot; sirrah, we eat our own hens, I'd have you know; and what you eat, you steal.
bone - Puss had a month's mind to be upon the bones of him but was not willing to pick a quarrel.
chatter - There was a crow sat chattering upon the back of a sheep; Well, sirrah, says the sheep, you durst not have done this to a dog.
chop - You'll never leave off your chopping of logick, �till your skin is turned over your ears for prating.
churlish - A lion in love with a lass, desired her father's consent. The answer was churlish enough, He'd never marry his daughter to a brute.
clamm - A swarm of wasp got into a honey-pot, and there they cloyed and clammed themselves �till there was no getting out again.
commute - Some commute swearing for whoring; as if forbearance of the one were a dispensation for the other.
conceit - He conceits himself to be struck at, when he is not so much as thought of.
conjobble - What would a body think of a minister that should conjobble matters of state with tumblers, and confer politicks with tinkers?
couple - It is in some sort with friends as it is with dogs in couples; they should be of the same size and humour.
course - Men talk as if they believed in God, but they live as if they thought there was none; their vows and promises are no more than words of course.
dapper - A pert dapper spark of a magpye, fancied the birds would never be governed �till himself should sit at the helm.
death's-door - There was a woman that had brought herself even to deaths-door with grief for her sick husband.
eviction - A plurality of voices carries the question, in all our debates, but rather as an expedient for peace than an eviction of the right.
fetch - The hare laid himself down, and took a nap; for, says he, I can fetch up the tortoise when I please.
fig - Away to the sow she goes, and figs her in the crown with another story.
glaver - Kingdoms have their distempers, intermissions, and paroxysms, as well as natu4ral bodies; and a glavering council is as dangerous on the one hand as a wheedling priest, or a flattering physician is on the other.
gob - Do'st think I have so little wit as to part with such a gob of money?
guttle -The fool spit in his porridge, to try if they'd hiss: they did not hiss, and so he guttled them up, and scalded his chops.
hagged - A hagged carion of a wolf, and a jolly sort of dog, with good flesh upon's back, fell into company together.
huggermugger - There's a distinction betwixt what's done openly and barefaced, and a thing that's done in huggermugger, under a seal of secrecy and concealment.
hunks - The old hunks was well served, to be tricked out of a whole hog for the securing of his puddings.
ink- He that would live clear of envy must lay his finger upon his mouth, and keep his hand out of the ink pot.
joll - The tortoises envied the easiness of the frogs, �till they saw them jolled to pieces and devoured for want of a buckler.
juke - Two asses travelled; the one laden with oats, the other with money: the money-merchant was so proud of his trust, that he went juking and tossing of his head.
kennel - The dog kennelled in a hollow tree, and the cock roosted upon the boughs.
knab - I had much rather lie knabbing crusts, without fear, in my own hole, than be mistress of the world with cares.
leaky - Women are so leaky, that I have hardly met with one that could not hold her breath longer than she could keep a secret.
lieve - Action is death to some sort of people, and they would as lieve hang as work.
load - There are those that can never sleep without their load, nor enjoy one easy thought, till they have laid all their cares to rest with a bottle.
marrowbone - Upon this he fell down upon his marrow-bones, and begged Jupiter to give him a pair of horns.
mawmish - It is one of those most nauseous, mawmish mortifications, for a man of sense to have to do with a punctual, finical fop.
meally-mouthed - She was a fool to be mealy-mouthed where nature speaks so plain.
merry-andrew - He would be a statesman because he is a buffoon; as if there went no more to the making of a counsellor than the faculities of a merry-andrew or tumbler.
mightily - An ass and an ape conferring grievances: the ass complained mightily for want of horns, and the ape for want of a tail.
mobile - The mobile are uneasy without a ruler, they are restless with one.
moil - O the endless misery of the life I lead! cries the moiling husband; to spend all my days in ploughing.
mortal - The birds were in a mortal apprehension of the beetles, till the sparrow reasoned them into understanding.
mouse - A whole assembly of mousing saints, under the mask of zeal and good nature, lay many Kingdoms in blood..
mungrel - Mungrel curs bawl, snarle and snap, where the fox flies before them, and clap their tails between the legs when an adversary makes head against them.
muzzle - The nurse was then muzzling and coaxing of the child.
nickname - So long as her tongue was at liberty, thre was not a word to be got from her, but the same nickname is derision.
nim -They could not keep themselves honest of their fingers, but would be nimming something or other for the love of thieving.
occult - These instincts we call occult qualities; which is all one with saying that we do not understand how they work.
oglio - He that keeps an open house, should consider that there are oglio's of guest, as well as of dishes, and that the liberty of a common table is as good as a tacit invitation to all sorts of intruders.
outknave - The world calls it out-witting a man, when he's only outknaved.
particular - It is the greatest interest of particulars, to advance the good of the community.
pickapack - In a hurry she whips up her darling under her arms, and carries the other a pickapack upon her shoulders.
pin - As the woman was upon the peevish pin, a poor body comes, while the froward fit was upon her, to beg.
piss - On ass pisses, the rest piss for company.
politicaster - There are quacks of all sorts; as bullies, pedants, hypocrites, empiricks, law-jobbers and politicasters. (i.e., pretender to politics - now perhaps a news person thinking he understands politics and politicians)
porringer - A physician undertakes a woman with sore eyes, who dawbs �em up with ointment, and while she was in that pickle, carries off a porringer. (i.e., steals her blind)
powder - Whilst two companions were disputing it at sword's point, down comes a kite powdering upon them, and gobbet up both. (Perhaps two cocks fighting with their spurs and are set upon by a hawk who eats them.)
pravity - More people go to the gibbet for want of timely correction, than upon any incurable pravity of nature.
pretty - A weazle a pretty way off stood leering at him.
prog - She went our progging for provisions as before.
putid - He that follows nature is never out of his way; whereas all imitation is putid and servile.
quarry - With cares and horrors at his heart, like the vulture that is day and night quarrying upon Prometheus's liver.
quirk - There are a thousand quirks to avoid the stroke of the law.
rebuke - He gave him so terrible a rebuke upon the forehead with his heel, that he laid him at his length.
reclaim - Are not hawks brought to the hand, and lions, tygers and bears reclaimed by good usage?
rig - Jack was rigged out in his gold and silver lace, with a feather in his cap; and a pretty figure he made in the world.
roguy - A shepherd's boy had gotten a roguy trick of crying a wolf, and fooling the country with false alarms.
roll - In human society, every man has his roll and station assigned him.
ruff - How many princes that, in the ruff of all their glory, have been taken down from the head of a conquering army to the wheel of the victor's chariot.
salvo - It will be hard if he cannot bring himself off at last with some salvo or distinction, and be his own confessor.
scomm - The scomms, or buffoons of quality, are wolvish in conversation.
shail - Child, you must walk strait, without skiewing and shailing to every step you set.
shamefaced - A man may be shamefaced, and a woman modest, to the degree of scandalous.
sheepbiter - There are pollitical sheepbiters as wellas pastorial; betrayers of publick trusts, as well as private. (petty thiefs)
skipjack - The want of shame or brains does not presently entitle every little skipjack to the board's end in the cabinet.
slut - The frogs were ready to leap out of their skins for joy, �till one crafty old slut in the company advised them to consider a little better on't..
smellfeast - The ant lives upon her own, honestly gotten; whereas the fly is an intruder, and a common smellfeast that spunges upon other people's trenchers.
snip - He found his friend upon the mending hand, which he was glad to hear, because of the snip that he himself expected upon the dividend.
squelch - So soon as the poor devil had recovered the quelch, away he scampers, bawling like mad.
squirt - You are so given to squirting up and down, and chattering, that the world would say, I had chosen a jack pudding for a prime minister.
tag - He invited tag, rag, and bob-tail, to the wedding.
tamper - He tried washes to bring him to a better complexion, but there was no good to be done, the very tampering cast him into a disease.
tatterdemalion - As a poor fellow was trudging along in a bitter cold morning with never a rag, a spark that was warm clad called to this tatterdemalion, how he could endure this weather?
thick - They came thick and threefold for a time, till one experienced stager discovered the plot.
timber - The one took up in a thicket of brush-wood, and the other timbered upon a tree hard by.
tit - What does this envious tit, but away to her father with a tale.
trencherfly - He found all people came to him promiscuously, and he tried which of them were friends, and which only trencherflies and spungers.
twitter - A widow which had a twittering toward a second husband, took a gossipping companion to manage the job.
twettletwattle - Insipid twettletwatles, frothy jest, and jingling witticisms, inure us to a misunderstanding of things.
verjuice - Hang a dog upon a crab-tree and he'll never love verjuice (crabapple juice).
warren - The coney convenes a whole warren, tells her story, and advises upon a revenge.
whirlbat - A whirlbat he had slain many, and was now himself slain by Pollux.
wildgoosechase - Let a man consider the time, money, and vexation, that this wildgosechace has cost him, and then say what have I gotten to answer al this expence, but loose, giddy frolick?
wind - A man that had a great veneration for an image in his house, found that the more he prayed to it to prosper him in the world, the more he went down the wind still.
witticism - We have a libertine fooling even in his last agonies, with a witticism between his teeth, without any regard to sobriety and conscience.
word - He that descends not to word it with a shrew, does worse than beat her.
Many of these word have fallen into disfavor, and Johnson is right, some are certainly crude, vulgar, and perhaps lacking in value. But, as L'Estrange used them in his writing, he was expressing the language of ca. 1690 as it was used, in speech and in writing. Of course McAdams and Milne can be accused of selecting words that would be exactly as Johnson described them, but so much the better for us to understand the writers of the day and especially Sir Roger L'Estrange.
******
The following was taken from an advertisement for an item for sale on eBay. Unfortunately, I have no reference to the source or the eBay seller's address. However, it does encapsulate the spirit and character of Sir Roger L'Estrange.
"Following the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, there was a brief moment of relative press freedom in England while the king was busy finding the regicides who had publicly beheaded his father, Charles I, and giving them a closer look at the procedure. This allowed an interval for some political realignment by editors and a flurry of fresh newsbook publishing in London. However, once Charles II was comfortable on the throne he became as concerned as any of his predecessors about what was being said in "the public prints."
A writer of broadsides and pamphleteer, Sir Roger L'Estrange was appointed Surveyor of the Press in 1663 as a reward for his loyalty to the Royalist cause during and after the Civil War and his promoting the cause of the Restoration. L'Estrange immediately sought to take the maximum advantage of his good fortune by banning all contemporary newsbooks, other than his own two titles The Intelligencer, published every Tuesday and The Newes published each Thursday. L'Estrange was not an outstanding editor/journalist of the caliber of Marchamont Nedham or Henry Muddiman; he was more of a hired hack. In the first issue of The Intelligencer he set out his view of his obligations as an editor thus. "A Publick Mercury should never have my vote, because I think it makes the multitude too familiar with the actions and counsels of their superiors.". Nevertheless, his two-year reign as Surveyor and de facto sole proprietor of the English press, marks the end of the era of the first form of regularly published printed news, the newsbook, which had started in 1622. With the Plague in London and the rise of the Oxford (later London) Gazette, L'Estrange lost his monopoly and the age of the newsbook ended. However, he was called back after the Popish Plot of 1678 had introduced a new political/religious bias into the press, to berate the Protestant king's opponents whether Catholic or non-Conformist, which he took up with a vengeance in The Observator published in the form of a dialogue between a Printer and his Trimmer and later between a Whig and a Tory. Because of L'Estrange's unique position in the history of the development of the newspaper, original issues of his several works are a must for serious collectors. Since the death of Charles II on February 6, 1685 and the accession of his Catholic brother James, duke of York, as James II, the cunning Sir Roger had a new set of targets in anyone who had written anything anti-Catholic, which was almost everyone (including L'Estrange) during and after a recent Popish Plot scare."****
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