Folk-lore of Shakespeare by Thomas Firminger Thiselton Dyer (year 2 reading books .txt) 📖

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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 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.

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”

—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]

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 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.”

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.”

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.

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.”

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 similar signification. 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

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