Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 81

"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] "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakspeare," p. 20.

_Dice._ Among the notices of this game, may be quoted that in "Henry V."

(iv. prologue):

"The confident and over-l.u.s.ty 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 princ.i.p.ally 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 a.s.sistance. 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 "p.r.i.c.king 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 "t.i.tus Andronicus" (i. 1), this practice is alluded to by Saturninus:

"So, Ba.s.sia.n.u.s, you have play'd your prize."

[787] See Douce's "Ill.u.s.trations 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 pa.s.ses, 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 pa.s.s thy punto, thy stock, thy reverse, thy distance, thy montant." Hence, in "Much Ado About Nothing" (i. 1), Beatrice jocularly calls Bened.i.c.k "Signior Montanto," meaning to imply that he was a great fencer. Of the other old fencing terms quoted in the pa.s.sage above, it appears that "pa.s.sado" implied a pa.s.s or motion forwards. It occurs in "Romeo and Juliet" (ii. 4), where Mercutio speaks of the "immortal pa.s.sado! the punto reverso!" Again, in "Love's Labour's Lost" (i. 2), Armado says of Cupid that "The pa.s.sado he respects not, the duello he regards not." The "punto reverso" was a backhanded thrust or stroke, and the term "distance" was the s.p.a.ce 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 gla.s.s of liquor. The courage of the toper was tried in the attempt to toss off the gla.s.s 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 s.n.a.t.c.hed by the mouth and swallowed;[792] an allusion to which occurs in the pa.s.sage 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: