SPORTS AND PASTIMES.
Very many of the old sports and pastimes in popular use in Shakespeare's
day have long ago not only been laid aside, but, in the course of years,
have become entirely forgotten. This is to be regretted, as a great
number of these capital diversions were admirably suited both for in and
out of doors, the simplicity which marked them being one of their
distinguishing charms. That Shakespeare, too, took an interest in these
good old sources of recreation, may be gathered from the frequent
reference which he has made to them; his mention of some childish game
even serving occasionally as an illustration in a passage characterized
by its force and vigor.
_Archery._ In Shakespeare's day this was a very popular diversion, and
the "Knights of Prince Arthur's Round Table" was a society of archers
instituted by Henry VIII., and encouraged in the reign of
Elizabeth.[764] Fitzstephen, who wrote in the reign of Henry II.,
notices it among the summer pastimes of the London youth; and the
repeated statutes, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century,
enforcing the use of the bow, generally ordered the leisure time upon
holidays to be passed in its exercise.[765] Shakespeare seems to have
been intimately acquainted with the numerous terms connected with
archery, many of which we find scattered throughout his plays. Thus, in
"Love's Labour's Lost" (iv. 1), Maria uses the expression, "Wide o' the
bow hand," a term which signified a good deal to the left of the mark.
[764] See Drake's "Shakespeare and His Times," vol. ii. pp.
178-181.
[765] Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1870, vol. ii. p. 290.
The "clout" was the nail or pin of the target, and "from the passages,"
says Dyce,[766] "which I happen to recollect in our early writers, I
should say that the clout, or pin, stood in the centre of the inner
circle of the butts, which circle, being painted white, was called the
white; that, to 'hit the white' was a considerable feat, but that to
'hit or cleave the clout or pin' was a much greater one, though, no
doubt, the expressions were occasionally used to signify the same thing,
viz., to hit the mark." In "Love's Labour's Lost" (iv. 1), Costard says
of Boyet:
"Indeed, a' must shoot nearer, or he'll ne'er hit the clout;"
and, in "2 Henry IV." (iii. 2), Shallow says of old Double: "He would
have clapped i' the clout at twelve score"--that is, he would have hit
the clout at twelve-score yards. And "King Lear" (iv. 6) employs the
phrase "i' the clout, i' the clout: hewgh!"
[766] "Glossary," p. 84.
In "Romeo and Juliet" (ii. 4), where Mercutio relates how Romeo is "shot
thorough the ear with a love-song; the very pin of his heart cleft with
the blind bow-boy's butt-shaft," the metaphor, of course, is from
archery.
The term "loose" was the technical one for the discharging of an arrow,
and occurs in "Love's Labour's Lost" (v. 2).
According to Capell,[767] the words of Bottom, in "A Midsummer-Night's
Dream" (i. 2), "hold, or cut bow-strings," were a proverbial phrase, and
alluded to archery. "When a party was made at butts, assurance of
meeting was given in the words of that phrase, the sense of the person
using them being that he would 'hold' or keep promise, or they might
'cut his bow-strings,' demolish him for an archer." Whether, adds Dyce,
"this be the true explanation of the phrase, I am unable to determine."
[767] "Glossary," p. 210.
_All hid, all hid._ Biron, in "Love's Labour's Lost" (iv. 3), no doubt
means the game well-known as hide-and-seek, "All hid, all hid; an old
infant play." The following note, however, in Cotgrave's "French and
English Dictionary," has been adduced to show that he may possibly mean
blind-man's-buff: "Clignemasset. The childish play called Hodman-blind
[_i. e._, blind-man's-buff], Harrie-racket, or Are you all hid."
_Backgammon._ The old name for this game was "Tables," as in "Love's
Labour's Lost" (v. 2):
"This is the ape of form, monsieur the nice
That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice."
An interesting history of this game will be found in Strutt's "Sports
and Pastimes" (1876, pp. 419-421).
_Barley-break._ This game, called also the "Last Couple in Hell," which
is alluded to in the "Two Noble Kinsmen," (iv. 3), was played by six
people, three of each sex, who were coupled by lot.[768] A piece of
ground was then chosen, and divided into three compartments, of which
the middle one was called hell. It was the object of the couple
condemned to this division to catch the others, who advanced from the
two extremities; in which case a change of situation took place, and
hell was filled by the couple who were excluded by preoccupation from
the other places. This catching, however, was not so easy, as, by the
rules of the game, the middle couple were not to separate before they
had succeeded, while the others might break hands whenever they found
themselves hard pressed. When all had been taken in turn, the last
couple were said "to be in hell," and the game ended.
[768] From Gifford's Note on Massinger's Works, 1813, vol. i.
p. 104.
The game was frequently mentioned by old writers, and appears to have
been very popular. From Herrick's Poems, it is seen that the couples in
their confinement occasionally solaced themselves by kisses:
"_Barley-break; or, Last in Hell._
"We two are last in hell; what may we fear,
To be tormented, or kept pris'ners here?
Alas, if kissing be of plagues the worst,
We'll wish in hell we had been last and first."
In Scotland it was called barla-breikis, and was, says Jamieson,
"generally played by young people in a corn-yard, hence its name,
barla-bracks, about the stacks."[769] The term "hell," says Nares,[770]
"was indiscreet, and must have produced many profane allusions, besides
familiarizing what ought always to preserve its due effect of awe upon
the mind." Both its names are alluded to in the following passage in
Shirley's "Bird in a Cage:"
"Shall's to barlibreak?
I was in hell last; 'tis little less to be in a petticoat sometimes."
[769] See Jamieson's "Scottish Dictionary," 1879, vol. i. p. 122.
[770] "Glossary," vol. i. p. 57.
_Base._ This was a rustic game, known also as "Prison base" or "Prison
bars." It is mentioned in "Cymbeline" (v. 3) by Posthumus:
"Lads more like to run
The country base, than to commit such slaughter."
And in "Two Gentlemen of Verona" (i. 2) by Lucetta:
"Indeed, I bid the base for Proteus."[771]
[771] Ibid. vol. i. p. 58.
The success of this pastime depended upon the agility of the candidates,
and their skill in running. Early in the reign of Edward III. it is
spoken of as a childish amusement, and was prohibited to be played in
the avenues of the palace at Westminster during the session of
Parliament, because of the interruption it occasioned to the members and
others in passing to and fro as their business required. It was also
played by men, and especially in Cheshire and other adjoining counties,
where it seems to have been in high repute among all classes. Strutt
thus describes the game:[772] "The performance of this pastime requires
two parties of equal number, each of them having a base or home to
themselves, at the distance of about twenty or thirty yards. The players
then on either side, taking hold of hands, extend themselves in length,
and opposite to each other, as far as they conveniently can, always
remembering that one of them must touch the base. When any one of them
quits the hand of his fellow and runs into the field, which is called
giving the chase, he is immediately followed by one of his opponents. He
is again followed by a second from the former side, and he by a second
opponent, and so on alternately until as many are out as choose to run,
every one pursuing the man he first followed, and no other; and if he
overtake him near enough to touch him, his party claims one towards
their game, and both return home. They then run forth again and again in
like manner until the number is completed that decides the victory. This
number is optional, and rarely exceeds twenty."
[772] "Sports and Pastimes," 1876, p. 143.
The phrase to "bid the base," means to run fast, challenging another to
pursue. It occurs again in "Venus and Adonis:"
"To bid the wind a base he now prepares."
In Spenser's "Fairy Queen" (bk. v. canto 8), we read:
"So ran they all as they had been at base,
They being chased that did others chase."
_Bat-fowling._ This sport, which is noticed in "The Tempest" (ii. 1) by
Sebastian, was common in days gone by. It is minutely described in
Markham's "Hunger's Prevention" (1600), which is quoted by Dyce.[773]
The term "bat-fowling," however, had another signification, says Mr.
Harting,[774] in Shakespeare's day, and it may have been in this
secondary sense that it is used in "The Tempest," being a slang word for
a particular mode of cheating. Bat-fowling was practised about dusk,
when the rogue pretended to have dropped a ring or a jewel at the door
of some well-furnished shop, and, going in, asked the apprentice of the
house to light his candle to look for it. After some peering about the
bat-fowler would drop the candle as if by accident. "Now, I pray you,
good young man," he would say, "do so much as light the candle again."
While the boy was away the rogue plundered the shop, and having stolen
everything he could find stole himself away.
[773] "Glossary," pp. 29, 30.
[774] See Harting's "Ornithology of Shakespeare," p. 156;
Strutt's "Sports and Pastimes," 1876, p. 98. A simple mode of
bat-fowling, by means of a large clap-net and a lantern, and
called bird-batting, is alluded to in Fielding's "Joseph
Andrews" (bk. ii. chap. x.). Drake thinks that it is to a
stratagem of this kind Shakespeare alludes when he paints
Buckingham exclaiming ("Henry VIII." i. 1):
"The net has fall'n upon me; I shall perish
Under device and practice."
_Billiards._ Shakespeare is guilty of an anachronism in "Antony and
Cleopatra" (ii. 5), where he makes Cleopatra say: "Let's to
billiards"--the game being unknown to the ancients. The modern manner of
playing at billiards differs from that formerly in use. At the
commencement of the last century,[775] the billiard-table was square,
having only three pockets for the balls to run in, situated on one of
the sides--that is, at each corner, and the third between them. About the
middle of the table a small arch of iron was placed, and at a little
distance from it an upright cone called a king. At certain periods of
the game it was necessary for the balls to be driven through the one and
round the other, without knocking either of them down, which was not
easily effected, because they were not fastened to the table.
[775] Strutt's "Sports and Pastimes," 1876, p. 396.
_Bone-ace._ This old game, popularly called "One-and-Thirty," is alluded
to by Grumio in "Taming of the Shrew" (i. 2): "Well, was it fit for a
servant to use his master so; being, perhaps, for aught I see,
two-and-thirty--a pip out."[776] It was very like the French game of
"Vingt-un," only a longer reckoning. Strutt[777] says that "perhaps
Bone-ace is the same as the game called Ace of Hearts, prohibited with
all lotteries by cards and dice, An. 12 Geor. II., Cap. 38, sect. 2." It
is mentioned in Massinger's "Fatal Dowry" (ii. 2): "You think, because
you served my lady's mother, [you] are thirty-two years old, which is a
pip out, you know."
[776] A pip is a spot upon a card.
[777] "Sports and Pastimes," 1876, p. 436.
The phrase "to be two-and-thirty," a pip out, was an old cant term
applied to a person who was intoxicated.
_Bo-peep._ This nursery amusement, which consisted in peeping from
behind something, and crying "Bo!" is referred to by the Fool in "King
Lear" (i. 4): "That such a king should play bo-peep." In Sherwood's
Dictionary it is defined, "Jeu d'enfant; ou (plustost) des nourrices aux
petits enfans; se cachans le visage et puis se monstrant." Minsheu's
derivation of bo-peep, from the noise which chickens make when they come
out of the shell, is, says Douce,[778] more whimsical than just.
[778] "Illustrations of Shakespeare," p. 405.
_Bowls._ Frequent allusions occur to this game, which seems to have been
a popular pastime in olden times. The small ball, now called the jack,
at which the players aim, was sometimes termed the "mistress." In
"Troilus and Cressida" (iii. 2), Pandarus says: "So, so; rub[779] on,
and kiss the mistress." A bowl that kisses the jack, or mistress, is in
the most advantageous position; hence "to kiss the jack" served to
denote a state of great advantage. Thus, in "Cymbeline" (ii. 1), Cloten
exclaims, "Was there ever man had such luck! when I kissed the jack,
upon an up-cast to be hit away! I had a hundred pound on't." There is
another allusion to this game, according to Staunton, in "King John"
(ii. 1): "on the outward eye of fickle France"--the aperture on one side
which contains the bias or weight that inclines the bowl in running from
a direct course, being sometimes called the eye.
[779] Rub is still a term at the game, expressive of the
movement of the balls. Cf. "King Lear" (ii. 2), and "Love's
Labour's Lost" (iv. 1), where Boyet, speaking of the game,
says: "I fear too much rubbing."
A further reference to this game occurs in the following dialogue in
"Richard II." (iii. 4):
"_Queen._ What sport shall we devise here in this garden,
To drive away the heavy thought of care?
_1 Lady._ Madam, we'll play at bowls.
_Queen._'Twill make me think the world is full of rubs,
And that my fortune runs against the bias"
--the _bias_, as stated above, being a weight inserted in one side of a
bowl, in order to give it a particular inclination in bowling. "To run
against the bias," therefore, became a proverb. Thus, to quote another
instance, in the "Taming of the Shrew" (iv. 5) Petruchio says:
"Well, forward, forward! thus the bowl should run,
And not unluckily against the bias."
And in "Troilus and Cressida" (iv. 5), the term "bias-cheek" is used to
denote a cheek swelling out like the bias of a bowl.[780]
[780] Halliwell-Phillipps' "Handbook Index to Shakespeare," p. 43.
_Cards._ Some of the old terms connected with card-playing are curious,
a few of which are alluded to by Shakespeare. Thus, in "King Lear" (v.
1), Edmund says:
"And hardly shall I carry out my side,"
alluding to the card table, where to carry out a side meant to carry out
the game with your partner successfully. So, "to set up a side" was to
become partners in the game; "to pull or pluck down a side" was to lose
it.[781]
[781] Staunton's "Shakespeare," vol. iii. p. 592.
A lurch at cards denoted an easy victory. So, in "Coriolanus" (ii. 2),
Cominius says: "he lurch'd all swords of the garland," meaning, as
Malone says, that Coriolanus gained from all other warriors the wreath
of victory, with ease, and incontestable superiority.
A pack of cards was formerly termed "a deck of cards," as in "3 Henry
VI." (v. 1):
"The king was slily finger'd from the deck."
Again, "to vie" was also a term at cards, and meant particularly to
increase the stakes, and generally to challenge any one to a contention,
bet, wager, etc. So, Cleopatra (v. 2), says:
"nature wants stuff
To vie strange forms with fancy."
_Cherry-pit._ This consisted in throwing cherry stones into a little
hole--a game, says Nares, still practised with dumps or money.[782] In
"Twelfth Night" (iii. 4), Sir Toby alludes to it: "What, man! 'tis not
for gravity to play at cherry-pit with Satan." Nash, in his "Pierce
Pennilesse," speaking of the disfigurement of ladies' faces by painting,
says: "You may play at cherry-pit in the dint of their cheeks."
[782] See Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," vol. ii. p. 409.
_Chess._ As might be expected, several allusions occur in Shakespeare's
plays to this popular game. In "The Tempest" (v. 1), Ferdinand and
Miranda are represented playing at it; and in "King John" (ii. 1),
Elinor says:
"That thou mayst be a queen, and check the world!"
In the "Taming of the Shrew" (i. 1), Katharina asks:
"I pray you, sir, is it your will
To make a stale[783] of me amongst these mates?"
alluding, as Douce[784] suggests, to the chess term of _stale-mate_,
which is used when the game is ended by the king being alone and
unchecked, and then forced into a situation from which he is unable to
move without going into check. This is a dishonorable termination to the
adversary, who thereby loses the game. Thus, in Bacon's Twelfth Essay:
"They stand still like a stale at chess, where it is no mate, but yet
the game cannot stir."
[783] She means, "Do you intend to make a mockery of me among
these companions?"
[784] "Illustrations of Shakspeare," p. 20.
_Dice._ Among the notices of this game, may be quoted that in "Henry V."
(iv. prologue):
"The confident and over-lusty French
Do the low-rated English play at dice."
Edgar, in "King Lear" (iii. 4), says: "Wine loved I deeply, dice
dearly." Pistol, in "Merry Wives of Windsor" (i. 3), gives a double
allusion:
"Let vultures gripe thy guts!--for gourd and fullam holds,
And high and low beguiles the rich and poor."
"Gourds" were false dice, with a secret cavity scooped out like a
gourd. "Fullams" were also false dice, "loaded with metal on one side,
so as better to produce high throws, or to turn up low numbers, as was
required, and were hence named 'high men' or 'low men,' also 'high
fullams' and 'low fullams.'"[785] It has been suggested that dice were
termed _fullams_ either because Fulham was the resort of sharpers, or
because they were principally manufactured there.
[785] Gifford's note on Jonson's Works, vol. ii. p. 3.
_Dun is in the mire._ This is a Christmas sport, which Gifford[786]
describes as follows: "A log of wood is brought into the midst of the
room: this is _Dun_ (the cart-horse), and a cry is raised that he is
stuck in the mire. Two of the company advance, either with or without
ropes, to draw him out. After repeated attempts, they find themselves
unable to do it, and call for more assistance. The game continues till
all the company take part in it, when Dun is extricated. Much merriment
is occasioned from the awkward efforts of the rustics to lift the log,
and from sundry arch contrivances to let the ends of it fall on one
another's toes." Thus, in "Romeo and Juliet" (i. 4), Mercutio says:
"If thou art dun, we'll draw thee from the mire."
[786] Ibid., vol. vii. p. 283.
Beaumont and Fletcher, also, in the "Woman Hater" (iv. 3), allude to
this game:
"Dun's in the mire, get out again how he can."
_Fast and Loose._ This was a cheating game, much practised in
Shakespeare's day, whereby gypsies and other vagrants beguiled the
common people of their money: and hence was very often to be seen at
fairs. Its other name was "pricking at the belt or girdle;" and it is
thus described by Sir J. Hawkins: "A leathern belt was made up into a
number of intricate folds, and placed edgewise upon a table. One of the
folds was made to resemble the middle of the girdle, so that whoever
could thrust a skewer into it would think he held it fast to the table;
whereas, when he has so done, the person with whom he plays may take
hold of both ends, and draw it away." In "Antony and Cleopatra" (iv.
12), Antony says:
"Like a right gypsy, hath, at fast and loose,
Beguil'd me to the very heart of loss."
The drift of this game seems to have been to encourage wagers whether
the belt was fast or loose, which the juggler could easily make it at
his option. It is constantly alluded to by old writers, and is thus
described in Drayton's "Moon-calf:"
"He like a gypsy oftentimes would go,
All kinds of gibberish he hath learn'd to know,
And with a stick, a short string, and a noose,
Would show the people tricks at fast and loose."
_Fencing._ In years gone by, there were three degrees in fencing, a
master's, a provost's, and a scholar's.[787] To each of these a prize
was played, with various weapons, in some open place or square. In
"Titus Andronicus" (i. 1), this practice is alluded to by Saturninus:
"So, Bassianus, you have play'd your prize."
[787] See Douce's "Illustrations of Shakespeare," p. 35.
In the "Merry Wives of Windsor" (i. 1), Slender says: "I bruised my shin
th' other day with playing at sword and dagger with a master of fence,"
_i. e._, with one who had taken his master's degree in the science.
Among the numerous allusions to fencing quoted by Shakespeare may be
mentioned the following: "Venue or veney" was a fencing term, meaning an
attack or hit. It is used in the "Merry Wives of Windsor" (i. 1), by
Slender, who relates how he bruised his shin "with playing at sword and
dagger with a master of fence; three veneys for a dish of stewed
prunes." It is used metaphorically in "Love's Labour's Lost" (v. 1), for
a brisk attack, by Armado: "A sweet touch, a quick venue of wit! snip,
snap, quick and home!"[788] The Italian term "Stoccado" or "Stoccata,"
abbreviated also into "Stock," seems to have had a similar
signification. In "Romeo and Juliet" (iii. 1), Mercutio, drawing his
sword, says:
"Alla stoccata carries it away."
[788] See Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 919.
In the "Merry Wives of Windsor" (ii. 1), it is used by Shallow: "In
these times you stand on distance, your passes, stoccadoes, and I know
not what." Again, "Montant," an abbreviation of Montanto, denoted an
upright blow or thrust, and occurs also in the "Merry Wives of Windsor"
(ii. 3), where the Host tells Caius that he, with the others, has come
--"to see thee pass thy punto, thy stock, thy reverse, thy distance, thy
montant." Hence, in "Much Ado About Nothing" (i. 1), Beatrice jocularly
calls Benedick "Signior Montanto," meaning to imply that he was a great
fencer. Of the other old fencing terms quoted in the passage above, it
appears that "passado" implied a pass or motion forwards. It occurs in
"Romeo and Juliet" (ii. 4), where Mercutio speaks of the "immortal
passado! the punto reverso!" Again, in "Love's Labour's Lost" (i. 2),
Armado says of Cupid that "The passado he respects not, the duello he
regards not." The "punto reverso" was a backhanded thrust or stroke, and
the term "distance" was the space between the antagonists.
Shakespeare has also alluded to other fencing terms, such as the "foin,"
a thrust, which is used by the Host in the "Merry Wives of Windsor"
(iii. 2), and in "Much Ado About Nothing" (v. 1), where Antonio says, in
his heated conversation with Leonato:
"Sir boy, I'll whip you from your foining fence;
Nay, as I am a gentleman, I will."
The term "traverse" denoted a posture of opposition, and is used by the
Host in the "Merry Wives of Windsor" (ii. 3). A "bout," too, is another
fencing term, to which the King refers in "Hamlet" (iv. 7):
"When in your motion you are hot and dry--
As make your bouts more violent to that end."
_Filliping the Toad._ This is a common and cruel diversion of boys. They
lay a board, two or three feet long, at right angles over a transverse
piece two or three inches thick, then, placing the toad at one end of
the board, the other end is struck by a bat or large stick, which throws
the poor toad forty or fifty feet perpendicularly from the earth; and
the fall generally kills it. In "2 Henry IV." (i. 2), Falstaff says: "If
I do, fillip me with a three-man beetle."[789]
[789] A three-man beetle is a heavy implement, with three
handles, used in driving piles, etc., which required three men
to lift it.
_Flap-dragon._[790] This pastime was much in use in days gone by. A
small combustible body was set on fire, and put afloat in a glass of
liquor. The courage of the toper was tried in the attempt to toss off
the glass in such a manner as to prevent the flap-dragon doing
mischief--raisins in hot brandy being the usual flap-dragons. Shakespeare
several times mentions this custom, as in "Love's Labour's Lost" (v. 1)
where Costard says: "Thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon." And
in "2 Henry IV." (ii. 4), he makes Falstaff say: "and drinks off
candles' ends for flap-dragons."[791]
[790] A correspondent of "Notes and Queries," 2d series, vol.
vii. p. 277, suggests as a derivation the German _schnapps_,
spirit, and _drache_, dragon, and that it is equivalent to
spirit-fire.
[791] Cf. "Winter's Tale" (iii. 3): "But to make an end of the
ship,--to see how the sea flap-dragoned it."
It appears that formerly gallants used to vie with each other in
drinking off flap-dragons to the health of their mistresses--which were
sometimes even candles' ends, swimming in brandy or other strong
spirits, whence, when on fire, they were snatched by the mouth and
swallowed;[792] an allusion to which occurs in the passage above. As
candles' ends made the most formidable flap-dragon, the greatest merit
was ascribed to the heroism of swallowing them. Ben Jonson, in "The
Masque of the Moon" (1838, p. 616, ed. Gifford), says: "But none that
will hang themselves for love, or eat candles' ends, etc., as the
sublunary lovers do."
[792] See Nares's "Glossary," vol. i. p. 131.
_Football._ An allusion to this once highly popular game occurs in
"Comedy of Errors" (ii. 1). Dromio of Ephesus asks:
"Am I so round with you as you with me,
That like a football you do spurn me thus?
* * * * *
If I last in this service, you must case me in leather."
In "King Lear" (i. 4), Kent calls Oswald "a base football player."
According to Strutt,[793] it does not appear among the popular exercises
before the reign of Edward III.; and then, in 1349, it was prohibited by
a public edict because it impeded the progress of archery. The danger,
however, attending this pastime occasioned James I. to say: "From this
Court I debarre all rough and violent exercises, as the football, meeter
for laming than making able the users thereof."
[793] "Sports and Pastimes," pp. 168, 169.
Occasionally the rustic boys made use of a blown bladder, without the
covering of leather, by way of a football, putting beans and horse-beans
inside, which made a rattling noise as it was kicked about. Barclay, in
his "Ship of Fools" (1508) thus graphically describes it:
"Howe in the winter, when men kill the fat swine,
They get the bladder and blow it great and thin,
With many beans or peason put within:
It ratleth, soundeth, and shineth clere and fayre,
While it is thrown and caste up in the ayre,
Eche one contendeth and hath a great delite
With foote and with hande the bladder for to smite;
If it fall to grounde, they lifte it up agayne,
This wise to labour they count it for no payne."
Shrovetide was the great season for football matches;[794] and at a
comparatively recent period it was played in Derby, Nottingham,
Kingston-upon-Thames, etc.
[794] See "British Popular Customs," 1876, pp. 78, 83, 87, 401.
_Gleek._ According to Drake,[795] this game is alluded to twice by
Shakespeare--in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" (iii. 1):
"Nay, I can gleek upon occasion."
[795] "Shakespeare and his Times," vol. ii. p. 170; see Douce's
"Illustrations of Shakspeare," pp. 118, 435.
And in "Romeo and Juliet" (iv. 5):
"_1 Musician._ What will you give us?
_Peter._ No money, on my faith, but the gleek."
Douce, however, considers that the word _gleek_ was simply used to
express a stronger sort of joke, a scoffing; and that the phrase "to
give the gleek" merely denoted to pass a jest upon, or to make a person
appear ridiculous.
_Handy-dandy._ A very old game among children. A child hides something
in his hand, and makes his playfellow guess in which hand it is. If the
latter guess rightly, he wins the article, if wrongly, he loses an
equivalent.[796] Sometimes, says Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, "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 "change places" in "King Lear" (iv. 6):
"see how yond justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark, in thine ear:
change places; and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the
thief?"[797]
[796] Dyce's "Glossary," p. 199.
[797] See Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. ii. p. 420.
_Hide-fox and all after._ A children's game, considered by many to be
identical with hide-and-seek. It is mentioned by Hamlet (iv. 2). Some
commentators think that the term "kid-fox," in "Much Ado About Nothing"
(ii. 3), may have been a technical term in the game of "hide-fox." Some
editions have printed it "hid-fox." Claudio says:
"O, very well, my lord: the music ended,
We'll fit the kid-fox with a pennyworth."
_Hoodman-blind._ The childish sport now called blindman's buff was known
by various names, such as hood-wink, blind-hob, etc. It was termed
"hoodman-blind," because the players formerly were blinded with their
hoods,[798] and under this designation it is mentioned by Hamlet (iii.
4):
"What devil was't
That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind?"
[798] See Strutt's "Sports and Pastimes," pp. 499, 500; Brand's
"Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. ii. pp. 397, 398.
In Scotland this game was called "belly-blind;" and Gay, in his
"Shepherd's Week" (i. 96), says, concerning it:
"As once I play'd at blindman's buff, it hapt
About my eyes the towel thick was wrapt,
I miss'd the swains, and seiz'd on Blouzelind.
True speaks that ancient proverb, 'Love is blind.'"
The term "hoodman" occurs in "All's Well that Ends Well" (iv. 3). The
First Lord says: "Hoodman comes!" and no doubt there is an allusion to
the game in the same play (iii. 6), "we will bind and hoodwink him;" and
in "Macbeth" (iv. 3) Macduff says: "the time you may so hoodwink." There
may also have been a reference to falconry--the hawks being hooded in the
intervals of sport. Thus, in Latham's "Falconry" (1615), "to hood" is
the term used for the blinding, "to unhood" for the unblinding.
_Horse-racing._ That this diversion was in Shakespeare's day
occasionally practised in the spirit of the modern turf is evident from
"Cymbeline" (iii. 2):
"I have heard of riding wagers,
Where horses have been nimbler than the sands
That run i' the clock's behalf."
Burton,[799] too, who wrote at the close of the Shakespearian era,
mentions the ruinous consequences of this recreation: "Horse races are
desports of great men, and good in themselves, though many gentlemen by
such means gallop quite out of their fortunes."
[799] "Anatomy of Melancholy;" Drake's "Shakespeare and His
Times," vol. ii. p. 298.
_Leap-frog._ One boy stoops down with his hands upon his knees, and
others leap over him, every one of them running forward and stooping in
his turn. It is mentioned by Shakespeare in "Henry V." (v. 2), where he
makes the king say, "If I could win a lady at leap-frog, or by vaulting
into my saddle with my armour on my back, ... I should quickly leap into
a wife." Ben Jonson, in his comedy of "Bartholomew Fair," speaks of "a
leappe frogge chance note."
_Laugh-and-lie-down_ (more properly laugh-and-lay-down) was a game at
cards, to which there is an allusion in the "Two Noble Kinsmen" (ii. 1):
"_Emilia._ I could laugh now.
_Waiting-woman._ I could lie down, I'm sure."
_Loggat._ The game so called resembles bowls, but with notable
differences.[800] First, it is played, not on a green, but on a floor
strewed with ashes. The jack is a wheel of _lignum vitæ_, or other hard
wood, nine inches in diameter, and three or four inches thick. The
loggat, made of apple-wood, is a truncated cone, twenty-six or
twenty-seven inches in length, tapering from a girth of eight and a half
to nine inches at one end to three and a half or four inches at the
other. Each player has three loggats, which he throws, holding lightly
the thin end. The object is to lie as near the jack as possible. Hamlet
speaks of this game (v. 1): "Did these bones cost no more the breeding,
but to play at loggats with 'em?" comparing, perhaps, the skull to the
jack at which the bones were thrown. In Ben Jonson's "Tale of a Tub"
(iv. 5) we read:
"Now are they tossing of his legs and arms,
Like loggats at a pear-tree."
[800] Clark and Wright's "Notes to Hamlet," 1876, pp. 212, 213.
Sir Thomas Hanmer makes the game the same as nine-pins or skittles. He
says: "It is one of the unlawful games enumerated in the Thirty-third
statute of Henry VIII.;[801] it is the same which is now called
kittle-pins, in which the boys often make use of bones instead of
wooden pins, throwing at them with another bone instead of bowling."
[801] See Strutt's "Sports and Pastimes," p. 365; Nares's
"Glossary," vol. ii. p. 522.
_Marbles._ It has been suggested that there is an allusion to this
pastime in "Measure for Measure" (i. 3):
"Believe not that the dribbling dart of love
Can pierce a complete bosom."
--dribbling being a term used in the game of marbles for shooting slowly
along the ground, in contradistinction to _plumping_, which is elevating
the hand so that the marble does not touch the ground till it reaches
the object of its aim.[802] According to others, a dribbler was a term
in archery expressive of contempt.[803]
[802] Baker's "Northamptonshire Glossary," 1854, vol. i. p. 198.
[803] See Dyce's "Glossary," p. 134.
_Muss._ This was a phrase for a scramble, when any small objects were
thrown down, to be taken by those who could seize them. In "Antony and
Cleopatra" (iii. 13), Antony says:
"Like boys unto a muss, kings would start forth."
The word is used by Dryden, in the Prologue to the "Widow Ranter:"
"Bauble and cap no sooner are thrown down
But there's a muss of more than half the town."
_Nine-Men's-Morris._ This rustic game, which is still extant in some
parts of England, was sometimes called "the nine men's merrils," from
_merelles_, or _mereaux_, an ancient French word for the jettons or
counters with which it was played.[804] The other term, _morris_, is
probably a corruption suggested by the sort of dance which, in the
progress of the game, the counters performed. Some consider[805] that it
was identical with the game known as "Nine-holes,"[806] mentioned by
Herrick in his "Hesperides:"
"Raspe playes at nine-holes, and 'tis known he gets
Many a tester by his game, and bets."
[804] Douce's "Illustrations of Shakespeare," p. 144.
[805] See Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 605.
[806] See Strutt's "Sports and Pastimes," 1876, pp. 368, 369.
Cotgrave speaks of "Le jeu des merelles," the boyish game called
"merills," or "five pennie morris," played here most commonly with
stones, but in France with pawns or men made on purpose, and termed
"merelles." It was also called "peg morris," as is evidenced by Clare,
who, in his "Rural Muse," speaking of the shepherd boy, says:
"Oft we may track his haunts, where he hath been
To spend the leisure which his toils bestow,
By nine-peg morris nicked upon the green."
The game is fully described by James, in the "Variorum Shakespeare," as
follows: "In that part of Warwickshire where Shakespeare was educated,
and the neighbouring parts of Northamptonshire, the shepherds and other
boys dig up the turf with their knives to represent a sort of imperfect
chessboard. It consists of a square, sometimes only a foot diameter,
sometimes three or four yards. Within this is another square, every side
of which is parallel to the external square; and these squares are
joined by lines drawn from each corner of both squares, and the middle
of each line. One party or player has wooden pegs, the other stones,
which they move in such a manner as to take up each other's men, as they
are called, and the area of the inner square is called the pound, in
which the men taken up are impounded. These figures are, by the country
people, called _nine-men's-morris_, or _merrils_; and are so called
because each party has nine men. These figures are always cut upon the
green turf or leys, as they are called, or upon the grass at the end of
ploughed lands, and in rainy seasons never fail to be choked up with
mud." This verifies the allusion made by Shakespeare in "A
Midsummer-Night's Dream" (ii. 1):
"The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud;
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread are undistinguishable."
This game was also transferred to a board, and continues a fireside
recreation of the agricultural laborer. It is often called by the name
of "Mill," or "Shepherd's Mill."[807]
[807] See Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. ii. pp. 429, 432.
_Noddy._ Some doubt exists as to what game at cards was signified by
this term. It has been suggested that cribbage is meant. Mr. Singer
thinks it bore some resemblance to the more recent game of "Beat the
Knave out of Doors," which is mentioned together with "Ruff and new
coat" in Heywood's play of "A Woman Killed with Kindness." The game is
probably alluded to in "Troilus and Cressida" (i. 2), in the following
dialogue:
"_Pandarus._ When comes Troilus?--I'll show you Troilus anon:
if he see me, you shall see him nod at me.
_Cressida._ Will he give you the nod?
_Pandarus._ You shall see.
_Cressida._ If he do, the rich shall have more."[808]
[808] See Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 606.
The term "noddy" was also applied to a fool, because, says Minsheu, he
nods when he should speak. In this sense it occurs in "Two Gentlemen of
Verona" (i. 1):
"_Speed._ You mistook, sir: I say, she did nod; and you ask
me, if she did nod; and I say, 'Ay.'
_Proteus._ And that set together is noddy."
_Novem Quinque._ A game of dice, so called from its principal throws
being five and nine. It is alluded to in "Love's Labour's Lost" (v. 2)
by Biron, who speaks of it simply as "novem."
_Parish-top._ Formerly a top was kept for public exercise in a parish--a
custom to which the old writers often refer. Thus, in "Twelfth Night"
(i. 3), Sir Toby Belch says: "He's a coward, and a coystril, that will
not drink to my niece till his brains turn o' the toe like a
parish-top." On which passage Mr. Steevens says: "A large top was kept
in every village, to be whipped in frosty weather, that the peasants
might be kept warm by exercise, and out of mischief while they could not
work." Beaumont and Fletcher, in "Thierry and Theodoret" (ii. 3), speak
of the practice:
"I'll hazard
My life upon it, that a body of twelve
Should scourge him hither like a parish top,
And make him dance before you."
And in their "Night Walker" (i. 3) they mention the "town-top." Evelyn,
enumerating the uses of willow-wood, speaks of "great town-topps." Mr.
Knight[809] remarks that the custom which existed in the time of
Elizabeth, and probably long before, of a large top being provided for
the amusement of the peasants in frosty weather, presents a curious
illustration of the mitigating influences of social kindness in an age
of penal legislation.
[809] "Pictorial Shakespeare," vol. ii. p. 145.
_Primero._ In Shakespeare's time this was a very fashionable game at
cards, and hence is frequently alluded to by him. It was known under the
various designations of _Primero_, _Prime_, and _Primavista_; and,
according to Strutt,[810] has been reckoned among the most ancient games
of cards known to have been played in England. Shakespeare speaks of
Henry VIII. (v. 1) playing at primero with the Duke of Suffolk, and
makes Falstaff exclaim, in "Merry Wives of Windsor" (iv. 5), "I never
prospered since I forswore myself at primero." That it was the court
game is shown in a very curious picture described by Mr. Barrington, in
the "Archæologia" (vol. viii. p. 132), which represents Lord Burleigh
playing at this pastime with three other noblemen. Primero continued to
be the most fashionable game throughout the reigns of Henry VIII.,
Edward VI., Mary, Elizabeth, and James I.[811] In the Earl of
Northumberland's letters about the Gunpowder-plot we find that Josceline
Percy was playing at primero on Sunday, when his uncle, the conspirator,
called on him at Essex House; and in the Sydney Papers there is an
account of a quarrel between Lord Southampton and one Ambrose
Willoughby, on account of the former persisting to play at primero in
the presence-chamber after the queen had retired to rest. The manner of
playing was thus: Each player had four cards dealt to him one by one;
the seven was the highest card in point of number that he could avail
himself of, which counted for twenty-one; the six counted for sixteen,
the five for fifteen, and the ace for the same; but the two, the three,
and the four for their respective points only.
[810] "Sports and Pastimes."
[811] Smith's "Festivals, Games, and Amusements," 1831, p. 320.
There may be further allusions to this game in "Taming of the Shrew"
(ii. 1), where Tranio says:
"A vengeance on your crafty, wither'd hide!
Yet I have faced it with a card of ten"
--the phrase "to face it with a card of ten" being derived, as some
suggest, possibly from primero, wherein the standing boldly on a ten was
often successful. "To face" meant, as it still does, to attack by
impudence of face. In "1 Henry VI." (v. 3) Suffolk speaks of a "cooling
card," which Nares considers is borrowed from primero--a card so decisive
as to cool the courage of the adversary. Gifford objects to this
explanation, and says a "cooling-card" is, literally, a _bolus_. There
can be no doubt, however, that, metaphorically, the term was used to
denote something which damped or overwhelmed the hopes of an expectant.
Thus, in Fletcher's "Island Princess" (i. 3), Piniero says:
"These hot youths
I fear will find a cooling-card."
_Push-pin_ was a foolish sport, consisting in nothing more than pushing
one pin across another. Biron, in "Love's Labour's Lost" (iv. 3), speaks
of Nestor playing "at push-pin with the boys."
_Quintain._ This was a figure set up for tilters to run at, in mock
resemblance of a tournament, and is alluded to in "As You Like It" (i.
2) by Orlando, who says:
"My better parts
Are all thrown down, and that which here stands up
Is but a quintain, a mere lifeless block."
It cannot be better or more minutely described than in the words of Mr.
Strutt:[812] "Tilting or combating at the quintain is a military
exercise of high antiquity, and antecedent, I doubt not, to the jousts
and tournaments. The quintain originally was nothing more than the trunk
of a tree or post set up for the practice of the tyros in chivalry.
Afterwards a staff or spear was fixed in the earth, and a shield being
hung upon it, was the mark to strike at. The dexterity of the performer
consisted in smiting the shield in such a manner as to break the
ligatures and bear it to the ground. In process of time this diversion
was improved, and instead of a staff and the shield, the resemblance of
a human figure carved in wood was introduced. To render the appearance
of this figure more formidable, it was generally made in the likeness of
a Turk or a Saracen, armed at all points, bearing a shield upon his left
arm, and brandishing a club or a sabre with his right. The quintain thus
fashioned was placed upon a pivot, and so contrived as to move round
with facility. In running at this figure, it was necessary for the
horseman to direct his lance with great adroitness, and make his stroke
upon the forehead between the eyes, or upon the nose; for if he struck
wide of those parts, especially upon the shield, the quintain turned
about with much velocity, and, in case he was not exceedingly careful,
would give him a severe blow upon the back with the wooden sabre held in
the right hand, which was considered as highly disgraceful to the
performer, while it excited the laughter and ridicule of the
spectators."[813] In Ben Jonson's "Underwoods" it is thus humorously
mentioned:
"Go, Captain Stub, lead on, and show
What horse you come on, by the blow
You give Sir Quintain, and the cuff
You 'scape o' the sandbags counterbuff."
[812] "Sports and Pastimes," 1876, p. 182.
[813] See Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 713.
_Quoits._ This game derived its origin, according to Strutt,[814] from
the ancient discus, and with us, at the present day, it is a circular
plate of iron perforated in the middle, not always of one size, but
larger or smaller, to suit the strength or conveniency of the several
candidates. It is referred to in "2 Henry IV." (ii. 4), by Falstaff, who
assigns as one of the reasons why Prince Henry loves Poins: "Because
their legs are both of a bigness, and 'a plays at quoits well."
[814] "Sports and Pastimes," p. 141.
Formerly, in the country, the rustics, not having the round perforated
quoits to play with, used horse-shoes; and in many places the quoit
itself, to this day, is called a shoe.
_Running for the ring._ This, according to Staunton, was the name of a
sport, a ring having been one of the prizes formerly given in wrestling
and running matches. Thus, in the "Taming of the Shrew" (i. 1),
Hortensio says: "He that runs fastest gets the ring."
_Running the figure of eight._ Steevens says that this game is alluded
to by Shakespeare in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" (ii. 1), where Titania
speaks of the "quaint mazes in the wanton green." Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps,
in referring to this passage, says: "Several mazes of the kind here
alluded to are still preserved, having been kept up from time immemorial.
On the top of Catherine Hill, Winchester, the usual play-place of the
school, was a very perplexed and winding path, running in a very small
space over a great deal of ground, called a "miz-maze." The senior boys
obliged the juniors to tread it, to prevent the figure from being lost,
and I believe it is still retained."[815]
[815] See Milner's "History of Winchester," vol. ii. p. 155.
_See-Saw._ Another name for this childish sport is that given by
Falstaff in "2 Henry IV." (ii. 4), where he calls it "riding the wild
mare." Gay thus describes this well-known game:
"Across the fallen oak the plank I laid,
And myself pois'd against the tott'ring maid;
High leap'd the plank, adown Buxonia fell."
_Shove-Groat._ The object of this game was to shake or push pieces of
money on a board to reach certain marks. It is alluded to in "2 Henry
IV." (ii. 4), where Falstaff says: "Quoit him down, Bardolph, like a
shove-groat shilling;" or, in other words, Bardolph was to quoit Pistol
down-stairs as quickly as the smooth shilling--the shove-groat--flies
along the board. In a statute of 33 Henry VIII., shove-groat is called a
new game, and was probably originally played with the silver groat. The
broad shilling of Edward VI. came afterwards to be used in this game,
which was, no doubt, the same as shovel-board, with the exception that
the latter was on a larger scale. Master Slender, in the "Merry Wives of
Windsor" (i. 1), had his pocket picked of "two Edward shovel-boards,
that cost me two shilling and two pence a-piece." Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps,
in describing the game in his "Archaic Dictionary," says that "a shilling
or other smooth coin was placed on the extreme edge of the shovel-board,
and propelled towards a mark by a smart stroke with the palm of the
hand." It is mentioned under various names, according to the coin
employed, as shove-groat,[816] etc. The game of shove-halfpenny is
mentioned in the _Times_ of April 25, 1845, as then played by the lower
orders. According to Strutt, it "was analogous to the modern pastime
called Justice Jervis, or Jarvis, which is confined to common
pot-houses."
[816] According to Douce, "Illustrations of Shakespeare" (1839,
p. 280), it was known as "slide-groat," "slide-board,"
"slide-thrift," and "slip-thrift." See Strutt's "Sports and
Pastimes," 1876, pp. 16, 394, 398; Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii.
p. 791; Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. ii. p. 441.
_Snowballs._ These are alluded to in "Pericles" (iv. 6), and in the
"Merry Wives of Windsor" (iii. 5).
_Span-counter._ In this boyish game one throws a counter, or piece of
money, which the other wins, if he can throw another so as to hit it, or
lie within a span of it. In "2 Henry VI." (iv. 2), Cade says: "Tell the
king from me, that, for his father's sake, Henry the Fifth, in whose
time boys went to span-counter for French crowns, I am content he shall
reign." It is called in France "tapper;" and in Swift's time was played
with farthings, as he calls it "span-farthing."[817]
[817] See Strutt's "Sports and Pastimes," 1876, p. 491.
_Stool-ball._ This game, alluded to in the "Two Noble Kinsmen" (v. 2),
was formerly popular among young women, and occasionally was played by
persons of both sexes indiscriminately, as the following lines, from a
song written by Durfey for his play of "Don Quixote," acted at Dorset
Gardens, in 1694, show:[818]
"Down in a vale on a summer's day,
All the lads and lasses met to be merry;
A match for kisses at stool-ball to play,
And for cakes, and ale, and sider, and perry.
_Chorus_--Come all, great, small, short, tall, away to stool-ball."
[818] Quoted by Strutt, "Sports and Pastimes," p. 166.
Strutt informs us that this game, as played in the north, "consists in
simply setting a stool upon the ground, and one of the players takes his
place before it, while his antagonist, standing at a distance, tosses a
ball with the intention of striking the stool; and this is the business
of the former to prevent by beating it away with the hand, reckoning one
to the game for every stroke of the ball; if, on the contrary, it should
be missed by the hand and touch the stool, the players change places.
The conqueror is he who strikes the ball most times before it touches
the stool."
_Tennis._ According to a story told by the old annalists, one of the
most interesting historical events in connection with this game happened
when Henry V. was meditating war against France. "The Dolphin," says
Hall in his "Chronicle," "thynkyng King Henry to be given still to such
plaies and lyght folies as he exercised and used before the tyme that he
was exalted to the Croune, sent to hym a tunne of tennis balles to plaie
with, as who saied that he had better skill of tennis than of warre." On
the foundation of this incident, as told by Holinshed, Shakespeare has
constructed his fine scene of the French Ambassadors' audience in "Henry
V." (i. 2). As soon as the first Ambassador has given the Dauphin's
message and insulting gift, the English king speaks thus:
"We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;
His present and your pains we thank you for:
When we have match'd our rackets to these balls,
We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set
Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.
Tell him, he hath made a match with such a wrangler
That all the courts of France will be disturb'd
With chases."
In "Hamlet" (ii. 1), Polonius speaks of this pastime, and alludes to
"falling out at tennis." In the sixteenth century tennis-courts were
common in England, and the establishment of such places was countenanced
by the example of royalty. It is evident that Henry VII. was a
tennis-player. In a MS. register of his expenditures, made in the
thirteenth year of his reign, this entry occurs: "Item, for the king's
loss at tennis, twelvepence; for the loss of balls, threepence." Stow,
in his "Survey of London," tells us that among the additions that King
Henry VIII. made to Whitehall, were "divers fair tennis-courts,
bowling-allies, and a cock-pit." Charles II. frequently diverted himself
with playing at tennis, and had a particular kind of dress made for that
purpose. Pericles, when he is shipwrecked and cast upon the coast of
Pentapolis, addresses himself and the three fishermen whom he chances to
meet thus ("Pericles," ii. 1):
"A man whom both the waters and the wind,
In that vast tennis-court, have made the ball
For them to play upon, entreats you pity him."
In "Much Ado About Nothing" (iii. 2), Claudio, referring to Benedick,
says: "the old ornament of his cheek hath already stuffed
tennis-balls;"[819] and in "Henry V." (iii. 7), the Dauphin says his
horse "bounds from the earth as if his entrails were hairs." Again,
"bandy" was originally a term at tennis, to which Juliet refers in
"Romeo and Juliet" (ii. 5), when speaking of her Nurse:
"Had she affections, and warm youthful blood,
She'd be as swift in motion as a ball;
My words would bandy her to my sweet love,
And his to me."
[819] In "Love's Labour's Lost" (v. 2), the Princess speaks of
"a set of wit well play'd;" upon which Mr. Singer
("Shakespeare," vol. ii. p. 263) adds that "a set is a term at
tennis for a game."
Also, King Lear (i. 4) says to Oswald: "Do you bandy looks with me, you
rascal?"
_Tick-tack._ This was a sort of backgammon, and is alluded to by Lucio
in "Measure for Measure" (i. 2) who, referring to Claudio's unpleasant
predicament, says: "I would be sorry should be thus foolishly lost at a
game of tick-tack." In Weaver's "Lusty Juventus," Hipocrisye, seeing
Lusty Juventus kiss Abhominable Lyuing, says:
"What a hurly burly is here!
Smicke smacke, and all thys gere!
You well [will] to _tycke take_, I fere,
If thou had tyme."[820]
[820] Quoted by Dyce's "Glossary," p. 449; see Brand's "Pop.
Antiq.," 1849, vol. ii. p. 445.
"Jouer au tric-trac" is used, too, in France in a wanton sense.
_Tray-trip._ This was probably a game at cards, played with dice as well
as with cards, the success in which chiefly depended upon the throwing
of treys. Thus, in a satire called "Machivell's Dog" (1617):
"But, leaving cardes, lets go to dice a while,
To passage, treitrippe, hazarde, or mumchance."
In "Twelfth Night" (ii. 5). Sir Toby Belch asks: "Shall I play my
freedom at tray-trip, and become thy bond-slave?" It may be remembered,
too, that in "The Scornful Lady" of Beaumont and Fletcher (ii. 1), the
Chaplain complains that the Butler had broken his head, and being asked
the reason, says, for
"Reproving him at tra-trip, sir, for swearing."
Some are of opinion that it resembled the game of hopscotch, or
Scotch-hop; but this, says Nares,[821] "seems to rest merely upon
unauthorized conjecture."
[821] "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 896.
_Troll-my-dame._ The game of Troll-madam, still familiar as Bagatelle,
was borrowed from the French (_Trou-madame_). One of its names was
Pigeon-holes, because played on a board, at one end of which were a
number of arches, like pigeon-holes, into which small balls had to be
bowled. In "Winter's Tale" (iv. 2), it is mentioned by Autolycus, who,
in answer to the Clown, says that the manner of fellow that robbed him
was one that he had "known to go about with troll-my-dames." Cotgrave
declares it as "the game called Trunkes, or the Hole."
_Trump._ This was probably the _triumfo_ of the Italians, and the
_triomphe_ of the French--being perhaps of equal antiquity in England
with _primero_. At the latter end of the sixteenth century it was very
common among the inferior classes. There is, no doubt, a particular
allusion to this game in "Antony and Cleopatra" (iv. 14), where Antony
says:
"the queen--
Whose heart I thought I had, for she had mine;
Which, whilst it was mine, had annex'd unto't
A million more, now lost--she, Eros, has
Pack'd cards with Cæsar, and false-play'd my glory
Unto an enemy's triumph."
The poet meant to say, that Cleopatra, by collusion, played the great
game they were engaged in falsely, so as to sacrifice Antony's fame to
that of his enemy. There is an equivoque between _trump_ and _triumph_.
The game in question bore a very strong resemblance to our modern
whist--the only points of dissimilarity being that more or less than four
persons might play at trump; that all the cards were not dealt out; and
that the dealer had the privilege of discarding some, and taking others
in from the stock. In Eliot's "Fruits for the French," 1593, it is
called "a very common ale-house game in England."
_Wrestling._ Of the many allusions that are given by Shakespeare to this
pastime, we may quote the phrase "to catch on the hip," made use of by
Shylock in the "Merchant of Venice" (i. 3), who, speaking of Antonio,
says,
"If I can catch him once upon the hip,
I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him"
--the meaning being, "to have at an entire advantage."[822] The
expression occurs again in "Othello" (ii. 1), where Iago says:
"I'll have our Michael Cassio on the hip."
[822] Dyce's "Glossary," p. 208.
Nares,[823] however, considers the phrase was derived from hunting;
because, "when the animal pursued is seized upon the hip, it is finally
disabled from flight."
[823] "Glossary," vol. i. p. 421.
In "As You Like It" (ii. 3), where Adam speaks of the "bonny priser of
the humorous duke," Singer considers that a _priser_ was the phrase for
a wrestler, a _prise_ being a term in that sport for a grappling or hold
taken.