Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 80

_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 amus.e.m.e.nt, 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 pa.s.sing to and fro as their business required. It was also played by men, and especially in Ches.h.i.+re and other adjoining counties, where it seems to have been in high repute among all cla.s.ses. 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 b.a.l.l.s 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 b.a.l.l.s 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 Ma.s.singer'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 amus.e.m.e.nt, 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 (pl.u.s.tost) des nourrices aux pet.i.ts 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 sh.e.l.l, is, says Douce,[778] more whimsical than just.

[778] "Ill.u.s.trations 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 b.a.l.l.s. 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 "Coriola.n.u.s" (ii. 2), Cominius says: "he lurch'd all swords of the garland," meaning, as Malone says, that Coriola.n.u.s 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: