Isaiah Thomas Broadside Ballads Project

Verses in Vogue with the Vulgar

The silver key, or A fancy to truth and a warning to youth. Shewing the benefit of money, and the contempt of the poor, under the term of a silver key

Signed by “Poor George Beverstoc,” most likely a pseudonym, the text on The Silver Key is probably an English poem that was not intended to be sung. In couplets, the didactic, semireligious text goes back and forth using the idiom to mean if you have money you will succeed; if you have no money, you are doomed. In 1805 the term “silver key” appeared in a news item about a criminal who used such a key—presumably meaning bribe money—to escape from jail (Litchfield [CT] Witness, November 13, 1805). The text circulated on broadsides in America, published by John Kneeland and Timothy Green, from as early as 1774. Leonard Deming printed another in the late 1820s. “George Beverstoc” is identified as George Beverstock on these issues.

Additional Metadata

Date

Sept. 2d, 1811

Place of Publication

Boston.

Publisher

Coverly, Nathaniel, 1775?-1824, printer.

Subjects

Poverty
Wealth
Poor
Success
Failure (Psychology)

First Line

Silver key, doth bear the sway.

Identifiers

BIB ID: 292272
OCLC Control No.: (OCoLC)ocm81855972
OCLC Control No.: (OCoLC)ocn191475958
Shaw, R.R. American Bibliography, 22341
AAS General Catalog URL: http://catalog.mwa.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=292272
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Physical Dimensions

29 x 22 cm.

Transcriptions

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Related Items

Woodcut for The silver key, or A fancy to truth and a warning to youth : Shewing the benefit of money, and the contempt of the poor, under the term of a silver key
Ornament for The silver key, or A fancy to truth and a warning to youth : Shewing the benefit of money, and the contempt of the poor, under the term of a silver key

Citation

“The silver key, or A fancy to truth and a warning to youth. Shewing the benefit of money, and the contempt of the poor, under the term of a silver key,” Isaiah Thomas Broadside Ballads Project, accessed December 1, 2023, https://www.americanantiquarian.org/thomasballads/items/show/269.