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Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
 "Then he must have a moderate contention of the mind to be
satisfied with indifferent things, and not out of any avaritious
greediness think every thing too little, be it never so abundant.
"Then must he be of a thankful nature, praising the author of all
goodness, and shewing a large gratefulness for the least satisfaction.
"Then must he be of a perfect memory, quick and prompt to call
into his mind all the needfull things which are any way in this
exercise to be imployed, lest by omission or by forgetfulness of any,
he frustrate his hopes, and make his labour effectless. Lastly, he
must be of a strong constitution of body, able to endure much
fasting, and not of a gnawing stomach, observing hours, in which if
it be unsatisfied, it troubleth both the mind and body, and loseth
that delight which maketh the pastime only pleasing."[296:A]
It is impossible to read this elaborate catalogue of qualifications
without a smile; for who would suppose that grammar, rhetoric and
logic, astronomy, geography, arithmetic and music, were necessary
to form an angler: yet we must allow, indeed, even in the present
times, that hope, patience, and contentment are still articles of
indispensable use to him who would catch fish; for though, as
Shakspeare justly observes,

"The pleasant'st angling is to see the fish

Cut with her golden oars the silver stream,
And greedily devour the treacherous bait,"[296:B]

yet are we so frequently disappointed of this latter spectacle, that

the art may be truly considered as a school for the temper, and as
meriting the rational encomium of Sir Henry Wotton, a dear lover of
the angle in the days of Shakspeare, and who has declared that,
after tedious study, angling was "a rest to his mind, a cheerer of his
spirits, a diverter of sadness[297:A], a calmer of unquiet thoughts, a
moderator of passions, a procurer of contentedness;" and "that it
begat habits of peace and patience in those that professed and
practised it." "Indeed, my friend," adds the amiable Walton, "you will
find angling to be like the virtue of humility; which has a calmness of
spirit, and a world of other blessings, attending upon it."[297:B]
A rural diversion of a kind very opposite to that of angling,
namely, Horse-racing, may be considered, during the reigns of
Elizabeth and James, if we compare it with the state to which the
rage for gambling has since carried it, as still in its infancy. It was
classed, indeed, with hawking and hunting, as a liberal pastime, and
almost generally pursued for the mere purposes of exercise or
pleasure; hence the moral satirists of the age, the Puritans of the
sixteenth century, have recommended it as a substitute for cards
and dice. That it was, however, even at this period, occasionally
practised in the spirit of the modern turf, will be evident from the
authority of Shakspeare, who says,

——————— "I have heard of riding wagers,

Where horses have been nimbler than the sands
That run i'the clock's behalf;"[297:C]

and Burton, who wrote at the close of the Shakspearean era,

mentions the ruinous consequences of this innovation: "Horse-
races," he observes, "are desports of great men, and good in
themselves, though many gentlemen by such means gallop quite out
of their fortunes."[298:A]
To encourage, however, a spirit of emulation, prizes were
established for the swiftest horses, and these were usually either
silver bells or silver cups; from the prevalence of the former, the
common term for horse-races in the time of James I. was bell-
courses, an amusement which became very frequent in the reign of
this prince, and, though the value of the prize did not amount to
more than eight or ten pounds, and the riders were for the most
part the owners of the horses, attracted a numerous concourse of
spectators.
The estimation in which the breed of race-horses was held, even
in the age of Elizabeth, may be drawn from a passage in one of the
satires of Bishop Hall, first published in 1597:—

————————— "Dost thou prize

Thy brute beasts worth by their dam's qualities?
Say'st thou this colt shall prove a swift pac'd steed,
Onely because a Jennet did him breed?
Or say'st thou this same horse shall win the prize,
Because his dam was swiftest Trunchifice
Or Runceval his syre; himself a galloway?
While like a tireling jade, he lags half way."[298:B]

While on this subject, we may remark, that the Art of Riding was,
during the era we are contemplating, carried to a state of great
perfection;

"To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,

And witch the world with noble horsemanship,"[298:C]

was the pursuit of every eager and aspiring spirit, and various
treatises were written to facilitate the attainment of an
accomplishment at once so useful and so fashionable. Among these,
the pieces of Gervase Markham may be deemed the best; indeed,
his earliest work on the subject, which is dated 1593, claims to be
the first ever written in this country on the art of training Running-
horses[299:A]; and is supposed also to be the first production of
Markham: it went through many impressions under various titles,
and from one of these termed Cavelarice, printed in 1607, I shall
select a minutely curious picture of the "horseman's apparel."
"First, when you begin to learne to ride, you must come to the
stable, in such decent and fit apparel, as is meet for such an
exercise, that is to say, a hat which must sit close and firme upon
your heade, with an indifferent narrow verge or brim, so that in the
saults or bounds of the horse, it may neither through widenesse or
unweldinesse fall from your head, nor with the bredth of the brim
fall into your eies, and impeach your sight, both which are verie
grosse errors: About your neck you shall weare a falling band, and
no ruffe, whose depth or thicknesse, may, either with the winde, or
motions of your horse, ruffell about your face; or, according to the
fashion of the Spaniards, daunce hobby-horse-like about your
shoulders, which though in them is taken for a grace, yet in true
judgment it is found an errour. Your doublet shal be made close and
hansome to your bodie, large wasted, so that you may ever be sure
to ride with your points trussed (for to ride otherwise is most vilde)
and in all parts so easye, that it may not take from you the use of
anie part of your bodie. About your waste you must have ever your
girdle and thereon a smal dagger or punniard, which must be so fast
in the sheath that no motion of the horse may cast it forth, and yet
so readie, that upon any occasion you may draw it. Your hose would
be large, rounde, and full, so that they may fill your saddle, which
should it otherwise be emptie and your bodie looke like a small
substance in a great compasse, it were wondrous uncomely. Your
bootes must be cleane, blacke, long, and close to your legge,
comming almost up to your middle thigh, so that they may lie as a
defence betwixt your knee and the tree of your saddle. Your boote-
hose must come some two inches higher then your bootes, being
hansomely tied up with pointes. Your spurres must be strong and
flat inward, bending with a compasse under your ancle: the neck of
your spurre must be long and straight, and rowels thereof longe and
sharp, the prickes thereof not standing thicke together, nor being
above five in number. Upon your handes you must weare a hansome
paire of gloves, and in your right hande you must have a long rodde
finely rush-growne, so that the small ende thereof be hardly so great
as a round packe-threed, insomuch that when you move or shake it,
the noyse thereof may be lowde and sharpe."[300:A]
Having thus noticed the great rural diversions of this period, as
far as they deviate from modern practice, the remainder of the
chapter will be occupied by such minor amusements of the country
as may now justly be considered obsolete; for it must be recollected,
that to enumerate only what is peculiar to the era under
consideration, forms the object of our research. It should, likewise,
here be added, that those amusements which are equally common
to both country and town, will find their place under the latter head,
such as cards, dice, the practice of archery, baiting, &c. &c.
Among the amusements generally prevalent in the country,
Burton has included the Quintaine. This was originally a mere martial
sport; and, as Vegetius informs us, familiar to the Romans, from an
individual of which nation, named Quintus, it is supposed to have
derived its etymology. During the early feudal ages of modern
Europe it continued to support its military character, was practised
by the higher orders of society, and preceded, and probably gave
origin to, tilting, justs, and tournaments. These, however, as more
elegant and splendid in their costume, gradually superseded it
during the prevalence of chivalry; it then became an exercise for the
middle ranks, for burgesses and citizens, and at length towards the
close of the sixteenth century, degenerated into a mere rustic sport.
It would appear, from comparing Stowe with Shakspeare, that
about the year 1600, the Quintain was made use of under two
forms; the most simple consisting of a post fixed perpendicularly in
the ground, on the top of which was a cross-bar turning upon a
pivot or spindle, with a broad board nailed at one end and a bag of
sand suspended at the other; at the board they ran on horseback
with spears or staves, and "hee," says Stowe, "that hit not the broad
end of the quinten was of all men laughed to scorne; and hee that
hit it full, if he rid not the faster, had a sound blow in his necke with
a bagge full of sand hanged on the other end."[301:A] A more costly
and elaborate machine, resembling the human form, is alluded to by
Shakspeare in As You Like It, where Orlando says,

——————— "My better parts

Are all thrown down; and that which here stands up,
Is but a quintain, a mere lifeless block."[301:B]

In Italy, Germany, and Flanders, a quintain, carved in wood in

imitation of the human form, was, during the sixteenth century, in
common use.[301:C] The figure very generally represented a
Saracen, armed with a shield in one hand, and a sword in the other,
and, being placed on a pivot, the skill of those who attacked it,
depended on shivering the lance to pieces between the eyes of the
figure; for if the weapon deviated to the right or left, and especially
if it struck the shield, the quintain turned round with such velocity as
to give the horseman a violent blow on the back with his sword, a
circumstance which covered the performer with ridicule, and excited
the mirth of the spectators. That such a machine, termed the shield
quintain, was used in Ireland during the reign of Richard the Second,
we have the authority of Froissart; it is therefore highly probable,
that this species of the diversion was as common in England, and
still lingered here in the reign of Elizabeth; and that to a quintain of
this kind, representing an armed man, and erected for the purpose
of a military exercise, Shakspeare alludes in the passage just quoted.
It must, however, be allowed, that at the commencement of the
seventeenth century, and for several years anterior, the quintain had
almost universally become the plaything of the peasantry, and was
seldom met with but at rural weddings, wakes, or fairs; or under any
other form than that which Stowe has described. No greater proof of
this can be given than the fact, that when Elizabeth was entertained
at Kenelworth Castle, in 1575, with an exact representation of a
Country Bridale, a quintain of this construction formed a part of it.
"Marvellous," says Laneham, "were the martial acts that were done
there that day; the bride-groom for pre-eminence had the first
course at the Quintaine, brake his spear treshardiment; but his mare
in his manage did a little so titubate, that much ado had his
manhood to sit in his saddle, and to scape the foil of a fall: With the
help of his hand, yet he recovered himself, and lost not his stirrups
(for he had none to his saddle); had no hurt as it hapt, but only that
his girth burst, and lost his pen and inkhorn that he was ready to
weep for; but his handkerchief, as good hap was, found he safe at
his girdle; that cheered him somewhat, and had good regard it
should not be filed. For though heat and coolness upon sundry
occasions made him sometime to sweat, and sometime rheumatic;
yet durst he be bolder to blow his nose and wipe his face with the
flappet of his father's jacket, than with his mother's muffler: 'tis a
goodly matter, when youth is mannerly brought up, in fatherly love
and motherly awe.
 "Now, Sir, after the bride-groom had made his course, ran the
rest of the band a while, in some order; but soon after, tag and rag,
cut and long tail; where the specialty of the sport was to see how
some for his slackness had a good bob with the bag; and some for
his haste to topple down right, and come tumbling to the post:
Some striving so much at the first setting out, that it seemed a
question between the man and the beast, whether the course should
be made a horseback or a foot: and put forth with the spurs, then
would run his race by us among the thickest of the throng, that
down came they together hand over head: Another, while he
directed his course to the quintain, his jument would carry him to a
mare among the people; so his horse as amorous as himself
adventurous: An other, too, run and miss the quintain with his staff,
and hit the board with his head!
"Many such gay games were there among these riders: who by
and by after, upon a greater courage, left their quintaining, and ran
one at another. There to see the stern countenances, the grim looks,
the couragious attempts, the desperate adventures, the dangerous
courses, the fierce encounters, whereby the buff at the man, and
the counterbuff at the horse, that both sometime came toppling to
the ground. By my troth, Master Martin, 'twas a lively pastime; I
believe it would have moved some man to a right merry mood,
though it had been told him his wife lay a dying."[303:A]
This passage presents us with a lively picture of what the rural
quintain was in the days of Elizabeth, an exercise which continued to
amuse our rustic forefathers for more than a century after the
princely festival of Kenelworth. Minshieu, who published his
Dictionary in 1617, the year subsequent to Shakspeare's death,
informs us that "A quintaine or quintelle," was "a game in request at
marriages, when Jac and Tom, Dic, Hob and Will, strive for the gay
garland." Randolph in 1642, alluding in one of his poems to the
diversions of the Spaniards, says

"Foot-ball with us may be with them balloone;

As they at tilts, so we at quintaine runne;
And those old pastimes relish best with me,
That have least art, and most simplicitie;"

Plott in his History of Oxfordshire, first printed in 1677, mentions

the Quintain as the common bridal diversion of the peasantry at
Deddington in that county; "it is now," he remarks, "only in request
at marriages, and set up in the way for young men to ride at as they
carry home the bride, he that breaks the board being counted the
best man[304:A];" and in a satire published about the year 1690,
under the title of The Essex Champion; or the famous History of Sir
Billy of Billerecay, and his Squire Ricardo, intended as a ridicule,
after the manner of Cervantes, on the romances then in circulation,
the hero, Sir Billy, is represented as running at a quintain, such as
Stowe has drawn in his Survey, but with the most unfortunate issue,
for "taking his launce in his hand, he rid with all his might at the
Quinten, and hitting the board a full blow, brought the sand-bag
about with such force, as made him measure his length on the
ground."[304:B]
Most of the numerous athletic diversions of the country remaining
what they were two centuries ago, cannot, in accordance with our
plan, require any comment or detail; two, however, now, we believe,
entirely obsolete, and which serve to mark the manners of the age,
it will be necessary to introduce. Mercutio, in a contest of pleasantry
and banter with Romeo, exclaims, "Nay, if thy wits run the wild-
goose chace, I have done."[304:C]
 This barbarous species of horse-race, which has been named
from its resemblance to the flight of wild-geese, was a common
diversion among the country-gentlemen of this period; Burton,
indeed, calls it one of "the disports of great men[305:A];" a
confession which does no honour to the age, for this elegant
amusement consisted in two horses starting together, and he who
proved the hindmost rider was obliged to follow the foremost over
whatever ground he chose to carry him, that horse which could
distance the other winning the race.
Another sport still more extraordinary and rude, and much in
vogue in the south-western counties, was, one of the numerous
games with the ball, and termed Hurling. Of this there were two
kinds, hurling to the Goales and hurling to the Country, and both
have been described with great accuracy by Carew, in his Survey of
Cornwall. The first is little more than a species of hand-ball, but the
second, when represented as the amusement of gentlemen,
furnishes a curious picture of the civilisation of the times.
"In hurling to the country," says Carew, "two or three, or more
parishes agree to hurl against two or three other parishes. The
matches are usually made by gentlemen, and their goales are either
those gentlemen's houses, or some towns or villages three or four
miles asunder, of which either side maketh choice after the
nearnesse of their dwellings; when they meet, there is neyther
comparing of numbers nor matching of men, but a silver ball is cast
up, and that company which can catch and carry it by force or slight
to the place assigned, gaineth the ball and the victory.—Such as see
where the ball is played give notice, crying 'ware east,' 'ware west,'
as the same is carried. The hurlers take their next way over hilles,
dales, hedges, ditches; yea, and thorow bushes, briars, mires,
plashes, and rivers whatsoever, so as you shall sometimes see
twenty or thirty lie tugging together in the water scrambling and
scratching for the ball."[305:B]
The domestic, amusements in the country being nearly, if not
altogether, the same with those which prevailed in the city, we shall,
with one exception, refer the consideration of them to another part
of this work. The pastime for which this distinction is claimed, was
known by the name of Shovel-board, or Shuffle-board, and was so
universally prevalent throughout the kingdom, during the era of
which we are treating, that there could scarcely be found a
nobleman's or gentleman's house in the country in which this piece
of furniture was not a conspicuous object. The great hall was the
place usually assigned for its station, though in some places, as, for
instance, at Ludlow Castle, a room was appropriated to this purpose,
called The Shovell-Board Room.[306:A]
The table necessary for this game, now superseded by the use of
Billiards, was frequently upon a very large and expensive scale. "It is
remarkable," observes Dr. Plott, "that in the hall at Chartley the
shuffle-board table, though ten yards one foot and an inch long, is
made up of about two hundred and sixty pieces, which are generally
about eighteen inches long, some few only excepted, that are scarce
a foot; which, being laid on longer boards for support underneath,
are so accurately joined and glewed together, that no shuffle-board
whatever is freer from rubbs or casting.—There is a joynt also in the
shuffle-board at Madeley Manor exquisitely well done."[306:B]
The mode of playing at Shovel-board is thus described by Mr.
Strutt:—"At one end of the shovel-board there is a line drawn across,
parallel with the edge, and about three or four inches from it; at four
feet distance from this line another is made, over which it is
necessary for the weight to pass when it is thrown by the player,
otherwise the go is not reckoned. The players stand at the end of
the table, opposite to the two marks above mentioned, each of them
having four flat weights of metal, which they shove from them, one
at a time, alternately: and the judgment of the play is, to give
sufficient impetus to the weight to carry it beyond the mark nearest
to the edge of the board, which requires great nicety, for if it be too
strongly impelled, so as to fall from the table, and there is nothing to
prevent it, into a trough placed underneath for its reception, the
throw is not counted; if it hangs over the edge, without falling, three
are reckoned towards the player's game; if it lie between the line
and the edge, without hanging over, it tells for two; if on the line,
and not up to it, but over the first line, it counts for one. The game,
when two play, is generally eleven; but the number is extended
when four, or more, are jointly concerned."[307:A]
It appears from a passage in the Merry Wives of Windsor, that, in
Shakspeare's time, the broad shillings of Edward VI. were made use
of at shovel-board instead of the more modern weights. Falstaff is
enquiring of Pistol if he picked master Slender's purse, a query to
which Slender thus replies: "Ay, by these gloves, did he, (or I would
I might never come in mine own great chamber again else,) of seven
groats in mill-sixpences, and two Edward shovel-boards, that cost
me two shillings and two pence a-piece of Yead Miller, by these
gloves."[307:B] "That Slender means the broad shilling of one of our
kings," remarks Mr. Malone, "appears from comparing these words
with the corresponding passage in the old quarto: 'Ay by this
handkerchief did he;—two faire shovel-board shillings, besides seven
groats in mill-sixpences.'"[307:C]
Mr. Douce is of opinion that the game of shovel-board is not much
older than the reign of Edward VI., and that it is only a variation, on
a larger scale, of what was term'd Shove-groat, a game invented in
the reign of Henry VIII., and described in the statutes, of his 33d
year, as a new game.[307:D] Shove-groat was also played, as the
name implies, with the coin of the age, namely silver groats, then as
large as our modern shillings, and to this pastime and to the
instrument used in performing it, Shakspeare likewise, and Jonson,
allude; the first in the Second Part of King Henry IV., where Falstaff,
threatening Pistol, exclaims, "Quoit him down, Bardolph, like a
Shove-groat shilling:"[308:A] the second in Every Man in his Humour,
where Knowell, speaking of Brain-worm, says that he has "translated
begging out of the old hackney pace, to a fine easy amble, and
made it run as smooth off the tongue as a shove-groat shilling."
[308:B] That the game of Shovel-board is subsequent, in point of

time, to the diversion of Shove-groat, is probable from the

circumstance noticed by Mr. Douce, that no coin termed shovel-groat
is any where to be found, and consequently the era of the broad
shilling may be deemed that also of shovel-board. Mr. Strutt
supposes the modern game of Justice Jervis to resemble, in all
essential points, the ancient Shove-groat.[308:C]
Between the juvenile sports which were common in the reigns of
Elizabeth and James, and those of the present day, little variation or
discrepancy, worth noticing, can be perceived; they were, under
slight occasional alterations of form and name, equally numerous,
trifling, or mischievous, and Shakspeare has now and then referred
to them, for the purposes of illustration or similitude; he has, in this
manner, alluded to the well-known games of leap-frog[308:D]; handy-
dandy[308:E]; wildmare, or balancing[308:F]; flap-dragons[308:G];
loggats, or kittle-pins[308:H]; country-base, or prisoner's bars[308:I];
fast and loose[308:J]; nine men's morris, or five-penny morris[308:K];
cat in a bottle[308:L]; figure of eight[308:M], &c. &c.; games which,
together with those derived from balls, marbles, hoops, &c. require
no description, and which, deviating little in their progress from age
to age, can throw no material light on the costume of early life. Very
few diversions, indeed, peculiar to our youthful days have become
totally obsolete; among these, however, may be mentioned one,
which, from the obscurity resting on it, its peculiarity, and former
popularity, is entitled to some distinction. We allude to the diversion
of BARLEY-BREAKE, of the mode of playing which, Mr. Strutt confesses
himself ignorant, and merely quotes the following lines from Sidney,
as given by Johnson in his Dictionary:
 "By neighbours prais'd, she went abroad thereby,
At barley-brake her sweet swift feet to try."[309:A]

Barley-breake was, however, among young people, one of the

most popular amusements of the reigns of Elizabeth and James the
First, and continued so until the austere zeal of the Puritans
occasioned its suppression: thus Thomas Randall, in "An Eclogue" on
the diversions of Cotswold Hills, complains that

"Some melancholy swaines, about have gone,

To teach all zeale, their owne complection—
These teach that dauncing is a Jezabell,
And Barley-breake, the ready way to hell."[309:B]

Before this puritanical revolution took place, barley-breake was a

common theme with the amatory bards of the day, and allusions to
it were frequent in their songs, madrigals, and ballets. With one of
these, written about 1600, we shall present the reader, as a pleasing
specimen of the light poetry of the age:—

"Now is the month of maying,

When merry lads are playing;
Each with his bonny lasse,
Upon the greeny grasse.

The spring clad all in gladnesse

Doth laugh at winter's sadnesse;
And to the bagpipe's sound,
The nymphs tread out their ground.

Fye then, why sit wee musing,

 Youth's sweet delight refusing;
Say daintie Nimphs and speake,
Shall wee play barly-breake."[310:A]
There were two modes of playing at barley-breake, and of these
one was rather more complex than the other. Mr. Gifford, in a note
on the Virgin-Martyr of Massinger, where this game, in its more
elaborate form, is referred to, remarks, that "with respect to the
amusement of barley-break, allusions to it occur repeatedly in our
old writers; and their commentators have piled one parallel passage
upon another, without advancing a single step towards explaining
what this celebrated pastime really was. It was played by six people
(three of each sex), who were coupled by lot. 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 pre-
occupation, from the other places. In this "catching," however, there
was some difficulty, as, by the regulations 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 was said
to be in hell, and the game ended."[310:B]
That this description, explanatory of the passage in Massinger,

"He is at barley-break, and the last couple

Are now in hell,"

is accurate and full, will derive corroboration from a scarce pamphlet

entitled "Barley-breake, or a Warning for Wantons," published in
1607, and which contains a curious representation of this
amusement.

——— "On a time the lads and lasses came,

Entreating Elpin that she[311:A] might goe play;
He said she should (Euphema was her name)
And then denyes: yet needs she must away.

To Barley-breake they roundly then 'gan fall,

Raimon, Euphema had unto his mate;
For by a lot he won her from them all;
Wherefore young Streton doth his fortune hate.

But yet ere long he ran and caught her out,

And on the back a gentle fall he gave her;
It is a fault which jealous eyes spie out,
A maide to kisse before her jealous father.

Old Elpin smiles, but yet he frets within,

Euphema saith, she was unjustly cast.
She strives, he holds, his hand goes out and in:
She cries, away! and yet she holds him fast.

Till sentence given by an other maid,

That she was caught according to the law;
The voice whereof this civill quarrell staid,
And to his mate each lusty lad 'gan draw.

Euphema now with Streton is in hell,

(For so the middle roome is alwaies cald)
He would for ever, if he might, there dwell;
He holds it blisse with her to be inthrald.
 The other run, and in their running change;
Streton 'gan catch, and then let goe his hold;
Euphema like a doe, doth swiftly range,
Yet taketh none, although full well she could,

And winkes on Streton, he on her 'gan smile,

And fame would whisper something in her eare;
She knew his mind, and bid him use a wile,
As she ran by him, so that none did heare."[311:B]
The simpler mode of conducting this pastime, as it was practised
in Scotland, has been detailed by Dr. Jamieson, who tells us, that it
was "a game generally played by young people in a corn-yard. One
stack is fixed on as the dule, or goal; and one person is appointed to
catch the rest of the company, who run out from the dule. He does
not leave it till they are all out of his sight. Then he sets off to catch
them. Any one who is taken cannot run out again with his former
associates, being accounted a prisoner; but is obliged to assist his
captor in pursuing the rest. When all are taken, the game is finished;
and he who was first taken is bound to act as catcher in the next
game."[312:A] It is evident, from our old poetry, that this style of
playing at barley-breake was also common in England, and especially
among the lower orders in the country.
It may be proper to add, at the close of this chapter, that a
species of public diversion was, during the Elizabethan period,
supported by each parish, for the purpose of innocently employing
the peasantry upon a failure of work from weather or other causes.
To this singular though laudable custom Shakspeare alludes in the
Twelfth Night, where Sir Toby says, "He's a coward, and a coystril,
that will not drink to my niece, 'till his brains turn o' the toe like a
[312:B]parish-top." "This," says Mr. Steevens, "is one of the customs
now laid aside;" and he adds, in explanation, that "a large top was
kept in every village, to be whipped in frosty weather, that the
peasants might be kept warm by exercise, and out of mischief, while
they could not work;" a diversion to which Fletcher likewise refers in
his Night-Walker, and which has given rise to the proverbial
expression of sleeping like a town-top.
From this rapid sketch of the diversions of the country, as they
existed in Shakspeare's time, it will be immediately perceived that
not many have become obsolete, and of those which have
undergone some change, the variations have not been such as
materially to obscure their origin or previous constitution. The object
of this chapter being, therefore, only to mark what was peculiar in
rural pastime to the age under consideration, and not to notice what
had suffered little or no modification, its articles, especially if we
consider the nature of the immediately preceding section, (and that
nearly all amusements common to both town and country were
referred to a future part,) could not be either very numerous, or
require any very extended elucidation.
What might be necessary in the minute and isolated task of the
commentator, would be tedious and superfluous in a design which
professes, while it gives a distinct and broad outline of the
complexion of the times, to preserve among its parts an unrelaxed
attention to unity and compression.
 FOOTNOTES:
[247:A] MS. Harl. Libr., No. 2057, apud Strutt's Customs, &c.

[247:B] Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, 8th edit. fol. 1676. p.

169, 170.

[247:C] Ibid. p. 172.

[247:D] Ibid. p. 174.

[247:E] Ibid. p. 172.

[248:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 22. note 6.

[249:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 21, 22. 25, 26.

[249:B] Pope's Preface to his edition of Shakspeare, vide

Reed's Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 183.

[249:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 25, note 3.

[250:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 26, note.

[250:B] Ibid. vol. xviii. p. 130, 131.

[250:C] Ibid. vol. xviii. p. 131. note 7.

[250:D] Poetaster, 1601, vide Ben Jonson's Works, fol. edit. of

1640, vol. i. p. 267.

[251:A] Apology for Actors, 1612.

[251:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xi. p. 307.

[251:C] Vide Malone's note in Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xi. p.

307.

[251:D] By the statute of the 39 Eliz. any baron of the realm

might license a company of players; but by the statute of first
James I. "it is declared and enacted, that from thenceforth no
authority given, or to be given or made, by any baron of this
realm, or any other honourable personage of greater degree, unto
any interlude players, minstrels, jugglers, bearward, or any other
idle person or persons whatsoever, using any unlawful games or
plays, to play or act, should be available to free or discharge the
said persons, or any of them, from the pains and punishments of
rogues, of vagabonds, and sturdy beggars, in the said statutes
(those of Eliz.) mentioned."

[252:A] A character in Gammar Gurtons Needle, says Mr.

Strutt, a comedy supposed to have been written A. D. 1517,
declares he will go "and travel with young Goose, the motion-
man, for a puppet-player."[252:E] This reference, however, is
inaccurate, for after a diligent perusal of the comedy in question,
no such passage is to be found.

[252:B] Ben Jonson's Works, fol. edit. 1640, vol. ii. p. 77. act v.
sc. 4.

[252:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. iv. p. 112.

[252:D] Vide Malone on the Chronological Order of

Shakspeare's Plays. Reed's Shakspeare, vol. 2. p. 304.

[252:E] Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, p. 150, note b.

[253:A] Chalmers's Supplemental Apology, p. 323, note s.

[253:B] Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, p. 20.

[253:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 304, and Chalmers's

Apology, p. 324, note.

[254:A] Athenæ Oxon. vol. ii. p. 812.

[254:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 124.

[254:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 16.

 [254:D] They were given him by Endymion Porter, the King's
servant.

[254:E] Biographical History of England, vol. ii. p. 399, 8vo.

edit. of 1775.

[255:A] Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, p. 20, and Heath's

Description of Cornwall, 1750.

[255:B] "About the year 750, Winifrid, or Boniface, a native of

England, and archbishop of Mons, acquaints Ethelbald, a king of
Kent, that he has sent him, one hawk, two falcons and two
shields. And Hedilbert, a king of the Mercians, requests the same
archbishop Winifrid to send him two falcons which have been
trained to kill cranes. See Epistol. Winifrid. (Bonifac.) Mogunt.
1605. 1629. And in Bibl. Patr. tom. vi., and tom. xiii. p. 70."—
Warton's Hist. of English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 221.

[256:A] Jonson's Works, fol. vol. i. p. 6. act i. sc. 1.

[256:B] Brathwait's English Gentleman, 2d edit. 1633. p. 220.

[257:A] "The Booke of Faulconrie, or Hawking, for the onely

delight and pleasure of all Noblemen and Gentlemen: collected
out of the best aucthors, as wel Italians as Frenchmen, and some
English practises withall concernyng Faulconrie, the contentes
whereof are to be seene in the next page folowyng. By Geo.
Turbervile, Gentleman. Nocet empta dolore voluptas. Imprinted at
London for Chr. Barker, at the signe of the Grashoper in Paules
Church-yarde, 1575." To this was added, the "Noble Arte of
Venerie or Hunting;" and a re-impression of both, "newly revived,
corrected, and augmented with many additions proper to these
present times," was published by Thomas Purfoot, in 1611.
 Gervase Markham published in 1595 the edition of Dame
Julyana Barne's Treatise on Hawking and Hunting, which we have
formerly noticed, and which was first printed by Caxton, and
afterwards by Winkin De Worde; and in 1615, the first edition of
his Country Contentments, which contains a treatise on Hawking;
a work so popular, that it reached thirteen or fourteen editions.

Edmund Best, who trained and sold hawks, printed a treatise

on Hawks and Hawking in 1619.

[259:A] Brathwait's English Gentleman, 2d edit. 1633. p. 201-

203.

[259:B] Henry Peacham, who remarks of Hawking, that it is a

recreation "very commendable and befitting a Noble or Gentleman
to exercise," adds, that "by the Canon Law, Hawking was
forbidden unto Clergie." The Compleat Gentleman, 2d. edit. p.
212, 213.

[260:A] Vide Quaternio, or a Fourefold Way to a Happie Life,

set forth in a Dialogue betweene a Countryman and a Citizen, a
Divine and a Lawyer. Per Tho. Nash, Philopolitean, 1633.

[260:B] English Gentleman, p. 200.

[262:A] Quaternio, 1633. It is, perhaps, scarcely necessary to

add, that the writer of this work must not be confounded with
Thos. Nash the author of Pierce Penniless, who died before 1606.

[262:B] To bind with is to tire or seize.—Gentleman's

Recreation.

[263:A] To cancelier. "Canceller is when a high-flown hawk in

her stooping, turneth two or three times upon the wing, to
recover herself before she seizeth her prey."—Gentleman's
Recreation.
 [263:B] Gifford's Massinger, vol. iv. p. 136, 137.—The Guardian,
from which this passage is taken, was licensed in October 1633.

[264:A] Dibdin's Typographical Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 57, 58.

[264:B] Hall's Life of Henry VIII. sub an. xvj.

[265:A] Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk.

[265:B] Anonymous MS., entitled "Merry Passages and Jeasts."

Bibl. Harl. 6395. Art. cccliv.

[265:C] Merry Passages and Jeasts, art. ccxxiii.

[266:A] The Falconer was sometimes denominated the

Ostringer or Sperviter: "they be called Ostringers," says Markham,
"which are the keepers of Goshawkes or Tercelles, and those
which keepe Sparrow-hawkes or Muskets are called Sperviters,
and those which keepe any other kinde of hawke being long-
winged are termed Falconers." Gentleman's Academie or Booke of
S. Alban's, fol. 8.

[266:B] Satyrical Essayes, Characters, &c., by John Stephens,

1615, 16mo. 1st edit.

[267:A] "All hawks," says Markham, "generally are manned

after one manner, that is to say, by watching and keeping them
from sleep, by a continuall carrying them upon your fist, and by a
most familiar stroaking and playing with them, with the wing of a
dead fowl, or such like, and by often gazing and looking them in
the face, with a loving and gentle countenance, and so making
them acquainted with the man.

"After your hawks are manned, you shall bring them to the
Lure[267:D] by easie degrees, as first, making them jump unto the
fist, after fall upon the lure, then come to the voice, and lastly, to
know the voice and lure so perfectly, that either upon the sound
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