Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/252

232 Have at thee. Will, for now I come. Spread thy hand faire upon thy bomb; For thy much insolence, bold bard. And little sense I strike thus hard. "Whose hand was that?" "'Twas Jaspar Mayne" "Nay, there you're out; lie down again. With Gondibert, prepare, and all See where the doctor comes to maul The author's hand, 'twill make him reel; No, Will lies still, and does not feel. That book's so light, 'tis all one whether You strike with that or with a feather. But room for one, new come to town. That strikes so hard, he'll knock him down; The hand he kno'ws, since it the place Has toucht more tender than his face; Important sheriff, now thou lyst down, We'll kiss thy hands, and clap our own.

The game of hot-cockles has only become obsolete in recent times, if it be even now quite out of use. Most readers will remember the passage in Gay's " Pastorals :" —

As at hot-cockles once I laid me down. And felt the weighty hand of many a clown, Buxoma gave a gentle tap, and I Quick rose, and read soft mischief in her eye.

This passage is aptly illustrated by the cut from the tapestry. The same Bodleian manuscript gives us a playful group, reproduced in our cut No. 163, which Strutt believes to be the game called, in more modern times, "frog-in-the-middle." One of the party, who played frog, fat on the ground, while his comrades surrounded and buffeted him, until he could catch and hold one of them, who then had to take his place. In our cut, the players are females. Games of questions and commands, and of forfeits, were also common in mediaeval society. Among the poems of Baudouin and Jean de Condé (poets of the thirteenth century), we have a description of a game of this kind. " One time," we are told, " there was play among ladies and damsels; there were among them both clever and handsome; they took up many games, until, at last, they elected a queen to play at roy-qui-ne-