FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:[728]Tylor’s “Primitive Culture,” 1873, vol. i. p. 145.[729]“Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1829, pp. 324-326.[730]“Annals of Worcester,” 1845.[731]Harland and Wilkinson’s “Lancashire Folk-Lore,” 1869, p. 268; see “English Folk-Lore,” 1878, pp. 99, 100; also “Notes and Queries,” 1st series, vol. iv. p. 133.[732]Cf. Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” v. 595-683.[733]See “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, pp. 82, 83.[734]Tylor’s “Primitive Culture,” vol. ii. p. 46.[735]Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 246.[736]Singer’s “Shakespeare,” 1875, vol. viii. p. 291.[737]“Folk-Lore of Northern Counties,” 1880, p. 58.[738]Cf. “Winter’s Tale,” iv. 4.[739]The word in German iskranz, in other Teutonic dialectskrants,krans, andcrance—the latter being Lowland Scotch—and havingcransiesfor plural. Clark and Wright’s “Hamlet,” 1876, p. 216.[740]“Pop. Antiq.” vol. ii. p. 303.[741]See Staunton’s “Shakespeare,” 1864, vol. i. p. 305.[742]“Shakespeare,” 1875, vol. ix. pp. 209, 210.[743]Notes on “Jonson’s Works,” vol. ix. p. 58.[744]“Primitive Culture,” vol. ii. p. 43.[745]See “British Popular Customs,” p. 404; Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. pp. 237, 246; Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 439.[746]See Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 222.[747]See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol ii. pp. 267-270.[748]“Primitive Culture,” vol. ii. p. 30.[749]“Primitive Culture,” 1873, vol. ii. p. 423.[750]Durandus, “De Officio Mortuorum,” lib. vii. chap. 35-39.[751]Dr. Johnson thought the words of the clown in “Hamlet” (v. 1), “make her grave straight,” meant, “make her grave from east to west, in a direct line parallel to the church.” This interpretation seems improbable, as the word straight in the sense of immediately occurs frequently in Shakespeare’s plays.[752]See Malone’s note, Variorum edition, xiv. 400.

[728]Tylor’s “Primitive Culture,” 1873, vol. i. p. 145.

[729]“Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1829, pp. 324-326.

[730]“Annals of Worcester,” 1845.

[731]Harland and Wilkinson’s “Lancashire Folk-Lore,” 1869, p. 268; see “English Folk-Lore,” 1878, pp. 99, 100; also “Notes and Queries,” 1st series, vol. iv. p. 133.

[732]Cf. Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” v. 595-683.

[733]See “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, pp. 82, 83.

[734]Tylor’s “Primitive Culture,” vol. ii. p. 46.

[735]Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 246.

[736]Singer’s “Shakespeare,” 1875, vol. viii. p. 291.

[737]“Folk-Lore of Northern Counties,” 1880, p. 58.

[738]Cf. “Winter’s Tale,” iv. 4.

[739]The word in German iskranz, in other Teutonic dialectskrants,krans, andcrance—the latter being Lowland Scotch—and havingcransiesfor plural. Clark and Wright’s “Hamlet,” 1876, p. 216.

[740]“Pop. Antiq.” vol. ii. p. 303.

[741]See Staunton’s “Shakespeare,” 1864, vol. i. p. 305.

[742]“Shakespeare,” 1875, vol. ix. pp. 209, 210.

[743]Notes on “Jonson’s Works,” vol. ix. p. 58.

[744]“Primitive Culture,” vol. ii. p. 43.

[745]See “British Popular Customs,” p. 404; Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. pp. 237, 246; Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 439.

[746]See Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 222.

[747]See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol ii. pp. 267-270.

[748]“Primitive Culture,” vol. ii. p. 30.

[749]“Primitive Culture,” 1873, vol. ii. p. 423.

[750]Durandus, “De Officio Mortuorum,” lib. vii. chap. 35-39.

[751]Dr. Johnson thought the words of the clown in “Hamlet” (v. 1), “make her grave straight,” meant, “make her grave from east to west, in a direct line parallel to the church.” This interpretation seems improbable, as the word straight in the sense of immediately occurs frequently in Shakespeare’s plays.

[752]See Malone’s note, Variorum edition, xiv. 400.

Froma very early period, rings and precious stones have held a prominent place in the traditionary lore, customs, and superstitions of most nations. Thus, rings have been supposed “to protect from evil fascinations of every kind, against the evil eye, the influence of demons, and dangers of every possible character: though it was not simply in the rings themselves that the supposed virtues existed, but in the materials of which they were composed—in some particular precious stones that were set in them as charms or talismans, in some device or inscription on the stone, or some magical letters engraved on the circumference of the ring.”[753]Rings, too, in days gone by, had a symbolical importance. Thus, it was anciently the custom for every monarch to have a ring, the temporary possession of which invested the holder with the same authority as the owner himself could exercise. Thus, in “Henry VIII.” (v. 1), we have the king’s ring given to Cranmer, and presented by him (sc. 2), as a security against the machinations of Gardiner and others of the council, who were plotting to destroy him. Thus the king says:

“If entreatiesWill render you no remedy, this ringDeliver them, and your appeal to usThere make before them.”

This custom, too, was not confined to royalty, for in “Richard II.” (ii. 2), the Duke of York gives this order to his servant:

“Sirrah, get thee to Plashy, to my sister Gloster;Bid her send me presently a thousand pound:—Hold, take my ring.”

There is an interesting relic of the same custom still kept up at Winchester College.[754]When the captain of the school petitions the head-master for a holiday, and obtains it, he receives from him a ring, in token of the indulgence granted, which he wears during the holiday, and returns to the head-master when it is over. The inscription upon the ring was, formerly, “Potentiam fero, geroque.” It is now “Commendat rarior usus” (Juvenal, “Sat.” xi. 208).

Token Ringsdate from very early times. Edward I., in 1297, presented Margaret, his fourth daughter, with a golden pyx, in which he deposited a ring, as a token of his unfailing love.

In “Richard III.” (i. 2) when Gloster brings his hasty wooing to a conclusion, he gives the Lady Anne a ring, saying:

“Look, how my ring encompasseth thy finger,Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart;Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.”

In “Cymbeline” (i. 1) Imogen gives Posthumus a ring when they part, and he presents her with a bracelet in exchange:

“Look here, love;This diamond was my mother’s; take it, heart;But keep it till you woo another wife,When Imogen is dead.Posthumus.How! how! another?—You gentle gods, give me but this I have,And sear up my embracements from a nextWith bonds of death! Remain, remain thou here,(Putting on the ring)While sense can keep it on.”

“Look here, love;This diamond was my mother’s; take it, heart;But keep it till you woo another wife,When Imogen is dead.

Posthumus.How! how! another?—You gentle gods, give me but this I have,And sear up my embracements from a nextWith bonds of death! Remain, remain thou here,(Putting on the ring)While sense can keep it on.”

Yet he afterwards gives it up to Iachimo (ii. 4)—upon a false representation—to test his wife’s honor:

“Here, take this too;It is a basilisk unto mine eye,Kills me to look on’t.”

The exchange of rings, a solemn mode of private contract between lovers, we have already referred to in the chapter on Marriage, a practice alluded to in the “Two Gentlemen of Verona” (ii. 2), where Julia gives Proteus a ring, saying:

“Keep this remembrance for thy Julia’s sake;”

and he replies:

“Why, then we’ll make exchange: here, take you this.”

Death’s-head rings.Rings engraved with skulls and skeletons were not necessarily mourning rings, but were also worn by persons who affected gravity; and, curious to say, by the procuresses of Elizabeth’s time. Biron, in “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (v. 2), refers to “a death’s face in a ring;” and we may quote Falstaff’s words in “2 Henry IV.” (ii. 4): “Peace, good Doll! do not speak like a death’s head; do not bid me remember mine end.” We may compare the following from “The Chances” (i. 5), by Beaumont and Fletcher:

“As they keep deaths’ heads in rings,To cry ‘memento’ to me.”

According to Mr. Fairholt, “the skull and skeleton decorations for rings first came into favor and fashion at the obsequious court of France, when Diana of Poictiers became the mistress of Henry II. At that time she was a widow, and in mourning, so black and white became fashionable colors; jewels were formed like funeral memorials; golden ornaments, shaped like coffins, holding enamelled skeletons, hung from the neck; watches, made to fit in little silver skulls, were attached to the waists of the denizens of a court that alternately indulged in profanity or piety, but who mourned for show.”[755]

Posy-ringswere formerly much used, it having been customary to inscribe a motto or “posy” within the hoop ofthe betrothal ring. Thus, in the “Merchant of Venice” (v. 1), Gratiano, when asked by Portia the reason of his quarrel with Nerissa, answers:

“About a hoop of gold, a paltry ringThat she did give me; whose posy wasFor all the world like cutlers’ poetryUpon a knife, ‘Love me, and leave me not.’”

In “As You Like It“ (iii. 2), Jaques tells Orlando, “You are full of pretty answers. Have you not been acquainted with goldsmiths’ wives, and conned them out of rings?”

Again, “Hamlet” (iii. 2) asks:

“Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?”

Many of our old writers allude to the posy-rings. Thus Herrick, in his “Hesperides,” says:

“What posies for our wedding rings,What gloves we’ll give, and ribbonings.”

Henry VIII. gave Anne of Cleves a ring with the following posy: “God send me well to kepe;” a most unpropitious alliance, as the king expressed his dislike to her soon after the marriage.

Thumb-rings.These were generally broad gold rings worn on the thumb by important personages. Thus Falstaff (“1 Henry IV.” ii. 4) bragged that, in his earlier years, he had been so slender in figure as to “creep into an alderman’s thumb-ring;” and a ring thus worn—probably as more conspicuous—appears to have been considered as appropriate to the customary attire of a civic dignitary at a much later period. A character in the Lord Mayor’s Show, in 1664, is described as “habited like a grave citizen—gold girdle, and gloves hung thereon, rings on his fingers, and a seal ring on his thumb.”[756]Chaucer, in his “Squire’s Tale,” says of the rider of the brazen horse who advanced into the hall, Cambuscan, that “upon his thumb he had of gold aring.” In “Romeo and Juliet” (i. 4), Mercutio speaks of the

“agate stoneOn the forefinger of an alderman.”

It has been suggested that Shakespeare, in the following passage, alludes to the annual celebration, at Venice, of the wedding of the Doge with the Adriatic, when he makes Othello say (i. 2):

“But that I love the gentle Desdemona,I would not my unhoused free conditionPut into circumscription and confineFor the sea’s worth.”

This custom, it is said, was instituted by Pope Alexander III., who gave the Doge a gold ring from his own finger, in token of the victory by the Venetian fleet, at Istria, over Frederick Barbarossa, in defence of the Pope’s quarrel. When his holiness gave the ring, he desired the Doge to throw a similar ring into the sea every year on Ascension Day, in commemoration of the event.

Agate.This stone was frequently cut to represent the human form, and was occasionally worn in the hat by gallants. In “2 Henry IV.” (i. 2) Falstaff says: “I was never manned with an agate till now”—meaning, according to Johnson, “had an agate for my man,” was waited on by an agate.

Carbuncle.The supernatural lustre of this gem[757]is supposed to be described in “Titus Andronicus” (ii. 3), where, speaking of the ring on the finger of Bassianus, Martius says:

“Upon his bloody finger he doth wearA precious ring, that lightens all the hole,Which, like a taper in some monument,Doth shine upon the dead man’s earthy cheeks,And shows the ragged entrails of the pit.”

In Drayton’s “Muses’ Elysium” (“Nymphal.” ix.) it is thus eulogized:

“That admired mighty stone,The carbuncle that’s named,Which from it such a flaming lightAnd radiancy ejecteth,That in the very darkest nightThe eye to it directeth.”

Milton, speaking of the cobra, says:

“His headCrested aloof, and carbuncle his eyes.”

John Norton,[758]an alchemist in the reign of Edward IV., wrote a poem entitled the “Ordinal,” or a manual of the chemical art. One of his projects, we are told, was a bridge of gold over the Thames, crowned with pinnacles of gold, which, being studded with carbuncles, would diffuse a blaze of light in the dark. Among the other references to it given by Shakespeare may be mentioned one in “Henry VIII.” (ii. 3), where the Princess Elizabeth is spoken of as

“a gemTo lighten all this isle.”

And Hamlet (ii. 2) uses the phrase, “With eyes like carbuncles.”

Chrysolite.This stone was supposed to possess peculiar virtues, and, according to Simon Maiolus, in his “Dierum Caniculares” (1615-19), Thetel the Jew, who wrote a book, “De Sculpturiis,” mentions one naturally in the form of a woman, which was potent against fascination of all kinds. “Othello” (v. 2) thus alludes to this stone in reference to his wife:

“Nay, had she been true,If heaven would make me such another worldOf one entire and perfect chrysolite,I’d not have sold her for it.”

Pearls.The Eastern custom of powdering sovereigns at their coronation with gold-dust and seed-pearl is alluded to in “Antony and Cleopatra”[759](ii. 5):

“I’ll set thee in a shower of gold, and hailRich pearls upon thee.”

So Milton (“Paradise Lost,” ii. 4):

“The gorgeous East, with liberal hand,Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold.”

Again, to swallow a pearl in a draught seems to have been common to royal and mercantile prodigality. In “Hamlet” (v. 2) the King says:

“The king shall drink to Hamlet’s better breath;And in the cup an union[760]shall he throw.”

Further on Hamlet himself asks, tauntingly:

“Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane,Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?”

Malone, as an illustration of this custom, quotes from the second part of Heywood’s “If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody:”

“Here sixteen thousand pound at one clap goesInstead of sugar. Gresham drinks this pearlUnto the queen, his mistress.”

In former times powdered pearls were considered invaluable for stomach complaints; and Rondeletius tells us that they were supposed to possess an exhilarating quality: “Uniones quæ a conchis, et valde cordiales sunt.”

Much mystery was, in bygone days, thought to hang over the origin of pearls, and, according to the poetic Orientals,[761]“Every year, on the sixteenth day of the month Nisan, the pearl oysters rise to the sea and open their shells, in order to receive the rain which falls at that time, and the drops thus caught become pearls.” Thus, in “Richard III.” (iv. 4) the king says:

“The liquid drops of tears that you have shedShall come again, transform’d to orient pearl,Advantaging their loan with interestOf ten times double gain of happiness.”

Moore, in one of his Melodies, notices this pretty notion:

“And precious the tear as that rain from the skyWhich turns into pearls as it falls in the sea.”

Turquoise.This stone was probably more esteemed for its secret virtues than from any commercial value, the turquoise, turkise, or turkey-stone, having from a remote period been supposed to possess talismanic properties. Thus, in the “Merchant of Venice” (iii. 1), Shylock says: “It was my turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor: I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys.” Mr. Dyce[762]says that Shylock valued his turquoise, “not only as being the gift of Leah, but on account of the imaginary virtues ascribed to it: which was supposed to become pale or to brighten according as the health of the wearer was bad or good.” Thus, Ben Jonson, in “Sejanus” (i. 1), alludes to its wonderful properties:

“And true as turkoise in the dear lord’s ring,Look well or ill with him.”

Fenton, in his “Certain Secret Wonders of Nature” (1569), thus describes it: “The turkeys doth move when there is any evil prepared to him that weareth it.” There were numerous other magical properties ascribed to the turquoise. Thus, it was supposed to lose its color entirely at the death of its owner, but to recover it when placed upon the finger of a new and healthy possessor. It was also said that whoever wore a turquoise, so that either it or its setting touched the skin, might fall from any height, the stone attracting to itself the whole force of the blow. With the Germans, the turquoise is still the gem appropriated to the ring, the “gage d’amour,” presented by the lover on the acceptance of his suit, the permanence of its color being believed to depend upon the constancy of his affection.[763]

FOOTNOTES:[753]Jones’s “Finger-Ring Lore,” 1877, p. 91.[754]Wordsworth’s “Shakespeare and the Bible,” 1880, p. 283.[755]See Jones’s “Finger-Ring Lore,” 1877, p. 372.[756]See Jones’s “Finger-Ring Lore,” 1877, p. 88.[757]See Sir Thomas Browne’s “Vulgar Errors.”[758]Jones’s “Precious Stones,” 1880, p. 62.[759]See Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. x. p. 213.[760]A union is a precious pearl, remarkable for its size.[761]See Jones’s “History and Mystery of Precious Stones,” p. 116.[762]“Glossary,” p. 465.[763]See C. W. King on “Precious Stones,” 1867, p. 267.

[753]Jones’s “Finger-Ring Lore,” 1877, p. 91.

[754]Wordsworth’s “Shakespeare and the Bible,” 1880, p. 283.

[755]See Jones’s “Finger-Ring Lore,” 1877, p. 372.

[756]See Jones’s “Finger-Ring Lore,” 1877, p. 88.

[757]See Sir Thomas Browne’s “Vulgar Errors.”

[758]Jones’s “Precious Stones,” 1880, p. 62.

[759]See Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. x. p. 213.

[760]A union is a precious pearl, remarkable for its size.

[761]See Jones’s “History and Mystery of Precious Stones,” p. 116.

[762]“Glossary,” p. 465.

[763]See C. W. King on “Precious Stones,” 1867, p. 267.

Verymany 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.

The “clout” was the nail or pin of the target, and “fromthe 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!”

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.”

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 niceThat, 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.

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.”

“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.”

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 runThe 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]

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.”

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 houseto 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.

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.

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.”

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 referredto 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.

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.

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”

“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”

—thebias, 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 aproverb. Thus, to quote another instance, in the “Taming of the Shrew” (iv. 5) Petruchio says:

Back to Index Next