Handy-dandy, Jack-a-dandy,
Which good hand will you have?
The party addressed either touches one hand, or guesses in which one the
article (whatever it may be) is placed. If he guesses rightly, he wins
its contents; if wrongly, he loses an equivalent.
Some versions read _handy-pandy_ in the first of these, with another
variation, that would not now be tolerated. This is one of the oldest
English games in existence, and appears to be alluded to in Piers
Ploughman, ed. Wright, p. 69:
Thanne wowede Wrong
Wisdom ful yerne,
To maken pees with his pens,
Handy-dandy played.
Florio, in his World of Worlds, ed. 1611, p. 57, translates
_bazziciúre_, "to shake between two hands, to play handie-dandie."
Miege, in his Great French Dictionary, 1688, says, "Handy-dandy, a kind
of play with the hands, _sorte de jeu de main_;" and Douce, ii. 167,
quotes an early MS., which thus curiously mentions the game: "They hould
safe your children's patrymony, and play with your majestie, as men play
with little children at _handye-dandye, which hand will you have_, when
they are disposed to keep anythinge from them." Some of the commentators
on Shakespeare have mistaken the character of the game, from having
adopted Coles's erroneous interpretation of _micare digitis_. Sometimes
the game is played by a sort of sleight of hand, changing the article
rapidly from one hand into the other, so that the looker-on is often
deceived, and induced to name the hand into which it is apparently
thrown. This is what Shakespeare alludes to by changing places.
Pope, in his Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus, says that the game of
handy-dandy is mentioned by Plato; but if, as I suppose, he refers to a
well-known passage in the Lysis, the allusion appears somewhat too
indistinct to warrant such an assertion,—αστρα γαλιζοντας τε δη
και κεκοσμημενους απαντας. οι μεν ουν πολλοι εν τη αυλη επαιζον εξω.
οι δε τινες του αποδυτηριου εν γωνια ηρτιαζον αστραγαλοις παμπολλοις,
εκ φορμισκων τινων προαιρουμενοι. A passage, however, in Julius
Pollux, ix. 101, referring to this, is rather more distinct, and may
allude to one form of the game.—Και μην και αρτιαζειν,
αστραγαλους εκ φορμισκων καθαιρομενους εν τω αποδυτηριω τους παιδας,
οΠλατων εφη. το δε αρτιαζειν εν αστραγαλων πληθει κεκρυμμενων υπο
ταιν χεροιν, μαντειαν ειχε των αρτιων η και περιττων. ταυτο δε τουτο
και κυαμοις, η καρυοις τε και αμυγδαλαις, οι δε και αργυριω πραττειν
ηξιουν, a passage which Meursius, de Ludis Græcorum, ed. 1625, p. 5,
thus partially translates, "nempe ludentes sumptis in manu talis, fabis,
nucibus, amygdalis, interdum etiam nummis, interrogantes alterum
divinare jubebant." Here we have the exact game of handy-dandy, which
is, after all, the simple form of the odd and even of children.
Browne has a curious allusion to this game in Britannia's Pastorals,
i. 5,—
Who so hath sene yong lads, to sport themselves,
Run in a low ebbe to the sandy shelves,
Where seriously they worke in digging wels,
Or building childish sorts of cockle-shels;
Or liquid water each to other bandy,
Or with the pibbles play at handy-dandy.