Chapter 26

“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]

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]

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 stuffTo 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 toit: “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.”

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 willTo make a stale[783]of me amongst these mates?”

alluding, as Douce[784]suggests, to the chess term ofstale-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.”

Dice.Among the notices of this game, may be quoted that in “Henry V.” (iv. prologue):

“The confident and over-lusty FrenchDo 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 withmetal 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 termedfullamseither because Fulham was the resort of sharpers, or because they were principally manufactured there.

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 isDun(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.”

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.”

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 similarsignification. In “Romeo and Juliet” (iii. 1), Mercutio, drawing his sword, says:

“Alla stoccata carries it away.”

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 diversionof 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]

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]

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.”

Football.An allusion to this once highly popular gameoccurs 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.”

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 deliteWith 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.

Gleek.According to Drake,[795]this game is alluded to twiceby Shakespeare—in “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream” (iii. 1):

“Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.”

And in “Romeo and Juliet” (iv. 5):

“1 Musician.What will you give us?Peter.No money, on my faith, but the gleek.”

“1 Musician.What will you give us?

Peter.No money, on my faith, but the gleek.”

Douce, however, considers that the wordgleekwas 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]

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,” becausethe players formerly were blinded with their hoods,[798]and under this designation it is mentioned by Hamlet (iii. 4):

“What devil was’tThat thus hath cozen’d you at hoodman-blind?”

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 haptAbout 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 sandsThat 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.”

Leap-frog.One boy stoops down with his hands upon his knees, and others leap over him, every one of them runningforward 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.”

“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 oflignum 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.”

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, throwingat them with another bone instead of bowling.”

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 loveCan pierce a complete bosom.”

—dribbling being a term used in the game of marbles for shooting slowly along the ground, in contradistinction toplumping, 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]

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 downBut 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,” frommerelles, ormereaux, 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 getsMany a tester by his game, and bets.”

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 beenTo 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, callednine-men’s-morris, ormerrils; 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 afireside recreation of the agricultural laborer. It is often called by the name of “Mill,” or “Shepherd’s Mill.”[807]

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]

“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]

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.”

“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 hazardMy life upon it, that a body of twelveShould 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.

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 ofPrimero,Prime, andPrimavista; 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.

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, abolus. 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 youthsI fear will find a cooling-card.”

Push-pinwas 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 partsAre all thrown down, and that which here stands upIs but a quintain, a mere lifeless block.”

It cannot be better or more minutely described than in thewords 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 showWhat horse you come on, by the blowYou give Sir Quintain, and the cuffYou ’scape o’ the sandbags counterbuff.”

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 alwaysof 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.”

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]

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 theTimesof 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.”

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]

Stool-ball.This game, alluded to in the “Two NobleKinsmen” (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]

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