The Game of Cricket, in some rude form, is undoubtedly as old as the
thirteenth century. But whether at that early date Cricket was the name
it generally bore is quite another question. For Club-Ball we believe
to be the name which usually stood for Cricket in the thirteenth
century; though, at the same time, we have some curious evidence that
the term Cricket at that early period was also known. But the identity
of the game with that now in use is the chief point; the name is of
secondary consideration. Games commonly change their names, as every
school-boy knows, and bear different appellations in different places.
Nevertheless, all previous writers acquiescing quietly in the opinion
of Strutt, expressed in his “Sports and Pastimes,” not only forget
that Cricket may be older than its name, but erroneously suppose
that the name of Cricket occurs in no author in the English language
of an earlier date than Thomas D’Urfey, who, in his “Pills to purge
Melancholy,” writes thus:--
“Herr was the prettiest fellow
At foot-ball and at _Cricket_;
At hunting chase or nimble race
_How featly_ Herr could prick it.”
The words “How featly” Strutt properly writes in place of a revolting
old-fashioned oath in the original.
Strutt, therefore, in these lines quotes the word Cricket as first
occurring in 1710.