Then Couples three be straight allotted

there,

They of both ends, the middle two, do fly; The two that in mid-space Hell called

were

Must strive, with waiting foot and watching

eye,

To catch of them, and them to Hell to bear,

That they, as well as they, may Hell supply; Like some that seek to salve their blotted

name

Will others blot, till all do taste of shame. There you may see, soon as the middle

two

Do, coupled, towards either Couple make, They, false and fearful, do their hands undo;

Brother his brother, friend doth friend forsake,

Heeding himself, cares not how fellow do, But if a stranger mutual help doth take; As perjur'd cowards in adversity,

With sight of fear, from friends to friends do fly."

Sir John Suckling, also, has given the fol

lowing description of this pastime with allegorical personages:

"Love, Reason, Hate did once bespeak

Three mates to play at Barley-break.
Love Folly took; and Reason Fancy;
And Hate consorts with Pride; so dance
they :

Love coupled last, and so it fell
That Love and Folly were in Hell.

They break; and Love would Reason meet,
But Hate was nimbler on her feet;
Fancy looks for Pride, and thither
Hies, and they two hug together;
Yet this new coupling still doth tell
That Love and Folly were in Hell.

The rest do break again, and Pride
Hath now got Reason on her side;
Hate and Fancy meet, and stand
Untouch'd by Love in Folly's hand;
Folly was dull, but Love ran well,
So Love and Folly were in Hell."(1)

In Holiday's old play of "TEXNOTAMIA, or the Marriages of the Arts," 4to., 1618, Sign. L. 2, this sport is introduced.

"A game generally played by young people in a corn-yard. Hence called Barla-bracks about the stacks, S. B." (i. e. in the north of Scotland.) "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 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. This innocent sport seems to be almost entirely forgotten in the south of S. It is also falling into desuetude in the north." He adds, "Perhaps from barley and break, q.

(1) A pleasant writer in the "Gent. Mag." for February 1738, vol. viii. p. 80, says that Blindman's-buff was a ridicule upon Henry VIII. and Wolsey; where the Cardinal Minister was bewildering his master with treaty upon treaty with several princes, leaving him to catch whom he could, till at last he caught his minister, and gave him up to be buffeted. When this reign was farther advanced, and many of the abbey-lands had been alienated, but the clergy still retained some power, the play most in fashion was, I am upon the Friar's ground, picking of gold and silver."

Dr. Jamieson, in his "Etymological Dic

The

tionary," gives us a curious account of this game, which in Scotland was called BELLYBLIND. In the Suio-Gothic it appears this game is called blind-boc, i. e. blind goat; and in German blind-kuhe, q. blind cow. French call this game Cligne-musset, from cligner, to wink, and musse, hidden; also, Colinmaillard, equivalent to "Colin the buffoon." "This game," says Dr. Jamieson, was not unknown to the Greeks. They called it κολλαβισμος, from x022a6a, impingo. It is thus defined: Ludi genus, quo hic quidem manibus expansis oculos suos tegit, ille vero postquam percussit, quærit num verberarit; Pollux ap.

MISSON, in his "Memoirs and Observations in his Travels over England," p. 304, speaking of sports and diversions, says: "Any thing that looks like fighting is delicious to an Englishman. If two little boys quarrel in the street, the passengers stop, make a ring round them in a moment, and set them against one another, that they may come to fisticuffs. When 'tis come to a fight, each pulls off his neckcloth and his waistcoat, and gives them to hold to the standers-by; (some will strip themselves naked quite to their waists;) then they begin to brandish their fists in the air; the blows are aim'd all at the face, they kick one another's shins, they tug one another by the hair, &c. He that has got the other down may give him one blow or two before he rises, but no more; and let the boy get up ever so often, the other is oblig'd to box him again as often as he requires it. During the fight the ring of by-standers encourage the combatants with great delight of heart, and never part

them while they fight according to the rules: and these by-standers are not only other boys, porters, and rabble, but all sorts of men of fashion; some thrusting by the mob, that they may see plain, others getting upon stalls; and all would hire places if scaffolds could be built in a moment. The father and mother of the boys let them fight on as well as the rest, and hearten him that gives ground or has the worst. These combats are less frequent among grown men than children, but they are not

rare.

If a coachman has a dispute about his fare with a gentleman that has hired him, and the gentleman offers to fight him to decide the quarrel, the coachman consents with all his heart: the gentleman pulls off his sword, lays it in some shop, with his cane, gloves, and cravat, and boxes in the same manner as I have describ'd above. If the coachman is soundly drubb'd, which happens almost always, (a gentleman seldom exposes himself to such a battle without he is sure he's strongest,) that

IN "Foure Statutes, specially selected and commanded by his Majestie to be carefully put in execution of all justices and other officers of the peace throughout the realme: together with a Proclamation, a Decree of the Starre-chamber, and certaine Orders depending upon the former lawes, more particularly concerning the citie of London and counties adjoining, A. D. 1609, 4to. b. l. p. 94, is the following order:

"That all plaies, bear-baitings, games, singing of ballads, Buckler-play, or such like causes of assemblies of people, be utterly prohibited, and the parties offending severely punished by any alderman or justice of the peace."

Misson, in his “Travels," translated by Ozell, p. 307, says: "Within these few years you should often see a sort of gladiators marching through the streets, in their shirts to the waist, their sleeves tucked up, sword in hand, and preceded by a drum, to gather spectators.

were

They gave so much a head to see the fight, which was with cutting swords, and a kind of buckler for defence. The edge of the sword was a little blunted, and the care of the prize-fighters was not so much to avoid wounding one another as to avoid doing it dangerously nevertheless, as they obliged to fight till some blood was shed, without which nobody would give a farthing for the show, they were sometimes forced to play a little roughly. I once saw a much deeper and longer cut given than was intended. These fights are become very rare within these eight or ten years. Apprentices, and all boys of that degree, are never without their cudgels, with which they fight something like the fellows before mentioned, only that the cudgel is nothing but a stick; and that a little wicker basket which covers the handle of the stick, like the guard of a Spanish sword, serves the combatant instead of defensive arms."