The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland Volume Ii Part 61

385.

Northbroke, in his Treatise against Dicing, 1579, p. 86, says: "Cato giveth counsell to all youth, saying, '_Trocho_ lude, aleas fuge, _playe with the toppe_, and flee dice-playing.'"

In the English translation of Levinus Lemnius, 1658, p. 369: "Young youth do merrily exercise themselves in whipping-top, and to make it run swiftly about, that it cannot be seen, and will deceive the sight."

Cornelius Scriblerus, in his Instructions concerning the Plays and Playthings to be used by his son Martin, says: "I would not have Martin as yet to scourge a top, till I am better informed whether the trochus which was recommended by Cato be really our present top, or rather the hoop which the boys drive with a stick."-_Pope's Works_, vi. 115.

Among well-known cla.s.sical allusions may be noted the following mention of whipping the top, in Persius's third Satire:

"Neu quis callidior buxum torquere flagello."

Thus translated by Dryden:

"The whirling top they whip, And drive her giddy till she fall asleep."

Thus also in Virgil's _aeneid_, vii. 378:

"Ceu quondam torto volitans sub verbere turbo, Quem pueri magno in gyro vacua atria circ.u.m Intenti ludo exercent. Ille actus habena Curvatis fertur spatiis: stupet inscia supra, Imp.u.b.esque ma.n.u.s, mirata volubile buxum: Dant animos plagae."

Thus translated by Dryden:

"As young striplings whip the top for sport, On the smooth pavement of an empty court; The wooden engine whirls and flies about, Admired with clamours of the beardless rout, They lash aloud, each other they provoke, And lend their little souls at ev'ry stroke."

And so Ovid, Trist. 1. iii. Eleg. 12:

"Otia nunc istic: junctisque ex ordine ludis Cedunt verbosi garrula bella fori.

Usus equi nunc est, levibus nunc luditur armis: Nunc pila, _nunc celeri volvitur orbe trochus_."

Pa.s.sing from these general allusions to the top as a form of amus.e.m.e.nt, we enter on more significant ground when we take into consideration the various pa.s.sages in the early dramatists and other writers (collected together in Nares' _Glossary_), which show that tops were at one time owned by the parish or village.

"He's a coward and a coystril that will not drink to my niece, till his brains turn like a parish-top."-Shakespeare, _Twelfth Night_, i. 3.

"A merry Greek, and cants in Latin comely, Spins like the parish-top."

-Ben Jonson, _New Inn_, ii. 5.

"I'll hazard My life upon it, that a boy of twelve Should scourge him hither like a parish-top, And make him dance before you."

-Beaumont and Fletcher, _Thierry and Theod._, ii. 1.

"And dances like a town top, and reels and hobbles."

-Ibid., _Night Walker_, i. 1.

Every night I dream I am a town-top, and that I am whipt up and down with the scourge stick of love.-"Grim, the Collier of Croydon," ap.

_Dodsley_, xi. 206.

In the Fifteen Comforts of Marriage, p. 143, we read: "Another tells 'em of a project he has to make town tops spin without an eel-skin, as if he bore malice to the school-boys."

Poor Robin, in his Almanack for 1677, tells us, in the Fanatick's Chronology, it was then "1804 years since the first invention of town-tops."

These pa.s.sages seem to refer to a custom of keeping tops by a township or parish, and they are confirmed by Evelyn, who, speaking of the uses of willow wood, among other things made of it, mentions great "town-topps" (_Sylva_, xx. 29). The latest writers who give positive information on the subject are Blackstone, who, in his note on Shakespeare, a.s.serts that to "sleep like a town top" was proverbial, and Hazlitt, who, in his collection of _English Proverbs_, has "like a parish-top." (See also Brand, ii. 448.)

Steevens, in his notes on Shakespeare, makes the positive a.s.sertion that "this is one of the customs now laid aside: a large top was formerly kept in every village, to be whipt in frosty weather, that the peasants might be kept warm by exercise, and out of mischief, while they could not work."

This pa.s.sage is repeated in Ellis's edition of Brand, so that there is only one authority for the two statements. The question is whether Steevens was stating his own independent knowledge, or whether he based his information upon the pa.s.sage in Shakespeare which he was ill.u.s.trating. I think there can be no doubt that the custom existed, in whatever way we accept Steevens' statement, and the question is one of considerable interest.

"Tops" is one of those games which are strictly limited to particular seasons of the year, and any infringement of those seasons is strictly tabooed by the boys. Hone (_Every Day Book_, i. 127), records the following rhyme:-

Tops are in, spin 'em agin; Tops are out, smuggin' about,

but does not mention the season. It is, however, the early spring. This rhyme is still in use, and may occasionally be heard in the streets of London in the top season. Smugging is legitimate stealing when boys play out of season. "Marbles furst, then comes tops, then comes kites and hoops," said a London boy who had acquired some tops by "smuggin;" but these rules are fast becoming obsolete, as is also the use of a dried eel skin as the favourite whip or thong used.

The keeping of a top by the parish in its corporate capacity is not likely to have arisen for the sake of supplying people with amus.e.m.e.nt, and we must look to a far more ancient origin for this singular custom.

Hone mentions a doubtful story of a top being used in the ritual of one of the churches at Paris. (The burial of Alleluia. The top was whipped by a choir-boy from one end of the choir to the other: _Every Day Book_, i. 100), and if this can be confirmed it would be a link in the chain of evidence. But the whole subject requires much more evidence than it is now possible to go into here, though even, as far as we can now go, I am tempted to suggest that this well-known toy takes us back to the serious rites of ancient religions.

Brady's _Clavis Calendaria_, i. 209, mentions the discontinued custom of whipping tops on Shrove Tuesday as originating in the Popish Carnival as types of the rigour of Church discipline.

It is not improbable that the tee-totum is the earliest form of top, and as its use is for gambling, it is probable that this and the top were formerly used for purposes of divination.

See "Gully," "Hoatie," "Hoges," "Peg Top," "Peg in the Ring,"

"Scurran-Meggy," "Totum."

The Totum, or Tee-to-tum

The Totum is really only a top to spin by hand. It is made of a square piece of wood or bone, the four sides being each marked with a letter, and the peg is put through a hole in the centre. Sometimes the totum is shaped to a point on the under side, and a pin fixed in the upper part, by which it is twirled round.

The game played is one of chance; it may be played by two or more, either boys or girls, and is played only at Christmas. In Keith the letters are A, N, D, T. In playing the stake is one pin, and each plays in turn. If the side with A on it falls uppermost the player wins the whole stake-"A, tack a'." If N turns up the player gets nothing-"N, nikil (nihil), nothing." If T turns up one pin falls to the player-"T, tack ane." If D comes uppermost the player has to lay down a pin-"D, dossie doon." At times the game was played by paying a stake to all the letters except A, and the words used were-"D, dip it," "T, tip it," and "N, nip it."-Keith (Rev. W. Gregor).

We played the game when children usually at Christmas time. The players sat round a table. A pool was made, each player putting in the same amount of stakes, either pins, counters, nuts, or money. One player collected the pool and then spun the tee-totum by his fingers. Whichever letter was uppermost when it stopped, the player had to obey.

T, was take all (the contents of the pool).

H, half the contents.

N, nothing.

P, to put into the pool the same amount as the stakes were at first.

When this was done the next player spun the totum in his turn. When one player got T a fresh pool had to be collected.-London (A. B. Gomme).

Jamieson's _Dictionary_ says children lay up stores of pins to play at this game at Christmas time.

William Dunbar, the Scottish poet (James IV.), seems to refer to this game in the poem, _Schir, ?it remembir as of befoir_, in the words-

"He playis with _totum_, and I with _nich.e.l.l_" (l. 74).

Strutt (_Sports and Pastimes_, page 385) says the four sides were marked with letters, and describes the game as we now play it in London.